
Clns^ - L C, yp A\ 



Book 



aZ 



Copyright N"_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSrr 



CITIZENSHIP AND THE 
SCHOOLS 



BY 

JEREMIAH W. JENKS, Ph.D., LL.D. 

Professor of Political Economy and Politics 
Cornell University 




NEW YORK 
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 

1900 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Oooles Received 

MAY 26 1906 




COPY B. 



t4^^ -1 



Copyright, 1906, 

By 

JEREMIAH W. JENKS. 



To 

MY DAUGHTER AND MY SONS 

mth the hope that they may in due time render to the State 

the high service of good citizenship. 



PKEFACE. 

The addresses and essays contained in this volume 
have been prepared at various times and for various 
purposes during the last fifteen or sixteen years. I am 
well aware that they show clearly in manner and thought 
the variety of uses to which they have been put, even in 
some instances the pressure of the circumstances under 
which they were written; but this possibly will not 
diminish their usefulness, and it has been thought best 
not to attempt to rewrite them. All of them have a 
direct bearing upon education, either from the point of 
view of educational doctrine or from that of school ad- 
ministration. All of them deal more or less, most of 
them primarily, with the relation of educational work to 
social and political life. 

The essay on School-Book Legislation was the out- 
come of a careful observation of the process of law- 
making in the state of Indiana and is perhaps as 
much a political as an educational study. From the 
educational point of view, however, the subject has 
much interest, and it has therefore been thought wise 



VI 



PREFACE. 



to add to this essay a supplementary note containing 
a list of laws along similar lines which have been 
passed in the various states since that time. 

As a student of politics for many years, I have 
been much impressed by the apathy of most voters, 
even on questions of great public interest. It has 
seemed to me that this very great evil must be re- 
moved, if at all, mainly through the influence of our 
public schools. In consequence, both before general 
audiences and before gatherings of teachers I have 
often taken the opportunity to discuss the question 
of training for citizenship. 

Every one interested in good government must have 
been gratified by noticing how prominent this sub- 
ject has lately become in discussions among teachers; 
but the schools doubtless still lack much, and they may 
be of far greater service in the future than they are at 
present, provided the teachers work intelligently together 
toward this end, the promotion of good citizenship. 
Every subject taught in the common schools will con- 
tribute to this purpose, if the teachers only keep it in 
mind and so organize their work as to carry it out. 
Moreover, in no other way can the burden of our over- 
crowded curriculum be so much lightened and the in- 
terest of pupils and parents be so easily aroused and re- 
tained as by careful work toward the unification of the 
curriculum around the central idea of social service, 



PREFACE. Vii 

It would be extremely useful if the teachers of any 
school system, through reading circles or otherwise, 
could arrange their subjects harmoniously with this end 
in view, each making his own subject teach citizenship 
from its own view-point, so that the work of each teacher 
would supplement that of every other. In the higher 
grades where special teachers of separate subjects are 
employed, those teaching arithmetic, for example, would 
do well to work out a series of lessons adapted to local 
economic and social conditions, so that, while suited 
to the teaching of arithmetical principles, the lessons 
would also contribute to the work in history, geography, 
literature and science. The teachers in geography, in 
the same way, should prepare a series of lessons that 
would be of service to the classes in history, literature, 
and mathematics, while the teachers of history, liter- 
ature, and science should so plan their work as not 
only to bring out the full value of those subjects from 
the social point of view, but also, by so doing, make 
each subject supplement the others. Adaptability to 
human service is the element in each case which will 
unify them. 

In the lower grades where all classes are taught by 
one teacher, such harmonious working of the different 
subjects can readily enough be planned, provided due 
care is taken and each subject is considered from the 
point of view of its relations to social life. 



VIU 



PREFACE. 



If this book can contribute in even a slight degree 
towards giving our teachers the view-point of social and 
political betterment as their chief aim in teaching, I 
shall be content. 

I wish to thank the publishers of the various period- 
icals in which several of these addresses and essays have 
appeared for permission to republish them here, and 
particularly to express my obligations to Dr. Charles 
McMurry who has read several of the essays and has 
made upon them most valuable criticisms and sugges- 
tions. 

J. W. J. 
Cornell TJniveksity^ 

Ithaca, Kew York. 
February, 1906. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I, Training for Citizenship 3 

First supplement of the Second Year-book of the 
National Herbart Society. Paper discussed at 
the Herbart Section of the Department of Super- 
intendence of the National Educational Asso- 
ciation, 1897. 

II. The Social Basis of Education 39 

Address before the Department of Education, Cornell 
University. Published in the Educational 
Review, December, 1905. 

III. The Making of Citizens 75 

Address at several places in Illinois, Indiana, and 
New York, especially in 1889-1890. 

IV. Relation of the Public Schools to Business 97 

Address before the Merchants Club, Chicago, Feb- 
ruary 9, 1901 ; before the Liberal Club, Buffalo, 
March 1, 1901. 

V. Education for Commerce : the Far East 181 

Address at the University Convocation, June 29, 
1905. North American Review, October, 1905. 

VI. Free Speech in American Universities 153 

Written 1897 at the time of the resignation of Presi- 
dent E. B. Andrews from Brown University, but 
not published. 

VII. Critique of Educational Values 171 

Educational Review, January, 1892. 

VIII. Policy of the State toward Education 199 

Impromptu discussion at University Convocation, 
Albany, July 5, 1894. 

IX. School-Book Legislation 207 

Political Science Quarterly, March, 1891. 

ix 



CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 



CITIZENSHIP AND THE 
SCHOOLS 

I. 

TRAINING FOR CITIZENSHIP* 

" The true measure of a nation's success is the amount that it 
has contributed to the knowledge, the moral energy, the intel- 
lectual happiness and the spiritual hope and consolation of man- 
kind." — Lowell, 

The veteran pedagogue is inclined to smile — rather 
pathetically to be sure, when he thinks of the need for 
better citizens — at the expression, " campaign of educa- 
tion/' which has become so popular now-a-days. The 
efforts of some 16,000,000 voters to " cram " on the 
money question, the tariff, expansion, or the open door 
in the Far East in the short space of three or four 
months with the aid of " coaches," each of whom is 
bent on giving a warped view of the subject, are praise- 
worthy and worth far more than the millions of dollars 
spent in the process; but it is a misnomer to call the 
process education. The more thoughtful voters will get 
much trustworthy and valuable information as a result 
of the special interest of the time ; the rousing of the at- 

* First Supplement of the second Year-Book of the National 
Herbart Society. Paper discussed at the Hei-bart Section of the 
Department of Superintendence of the National Educational 
Association, 1897. 

3 



4 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

tention of so many to the importance of public ques- 
tions, and the stimulation to think of the citizen's duties 
are of inestimable value in kind, though wofullj inade- 
quate in degree. But back of the whole process is the 
tacit assumption that what our citizens chiefly need is 
specific information on the issue of the day, while such 
information is in fact of minor importance. 

The whole matter of the education of adult voters is 
made doubly difficult, because, in the first place, teach- 
ers who are both willing and fit are hard to find — the 
willingness, judging from our campaign speakers, usu- 
ally existing in inverse ratio to the fitness — and, in the 
second place, the voters rarely feel sufficiently the need 
of training. That most difficult and complex of trades, 
statecraft, most voters, except the true statesmen, think 
they know by intuition. With lack of knowledge, too, 
on the subject, is often united the blindest prejudice and 
even pride in this prejudice. How often, for example, 
we hear an aged voter boasting that he has voted his 
party ticket straight for forty or fifty years, priding 
himself on the fact, though unconscious that it is a fact, 
that he has so long nursed his prejudices. Men, other- 
wise sensible, see only wisdom and patriotism in their 
own party, in their ojDponents only folly and corruption ; 
only good in the institutions of their own country, only 
evil in those of a foreign nation, though such short- 
sightedness checks progress. 

It is encouraging, however, to reflect that there is 
no more hopeful sign of social progress than the in- 
creasing sensitiveness of all classes of people regarding 
social evils, whether these evils be the physical suffering 



TRAINING FOR CITIZENSHIP. 5 

of the poor, or moral corruption, as shown in political 
frauds or impure lives of individuals. Even fifty 
years ago, one might take too much strong drink on 
festive occasions and expect to be easily excused for the 
folly; one hundred years ago a man might be as im- 
moral in his private life with little danger of public con- 
demnation. Only within late years have men been 
shocked and disgusted at the thought of a lottery or a 
prize fight or rat pit, or opposed to the employment of 
corporal punishment for misdemeanors. Our New Eng- 
land ancestors who were so horrified by the sin of Sab- 
bath-breaking or blasphemy, or disobedience to parents 
as to punish these crimes with death, were still ready 
to look calmly at a wretched neighbor groaning in the 
pillory while his tongue was pierced with a red hot 
iron or his nostrils slit with a keen-edged knife. The 
generation that cares for over-worked horses and stray 
dogs and cats is put by this sensitiveness on the highway 
to social improvement of one kind. The generation that 
has produced the great temperance reform movements ; 
that has brought woman into the foreground in social 
reforms, as is shown in the powerful influence over legis- 
lation exerted by the W. C. T. U. and kindred organiza- 
tions, has in another way made a great stride toward the 
millennial civilization of which all good men have 
dreamed since the days of Plato, though no one realizes 
better than these dreamers how far off is still that mil- 
lennial age. In the fight against either pauperism or 
vice, all thinking people who realize how slowly social 
changes must come, know that all reforms, if they are 
to be wide-reaching and permanent, must come through 



Q CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

the education of the people into an appreciation of what 
is highest and best in life, and into the firmness of 
character required of every good man. 

As the dwellers in our tenement houses, many of 
them, do not know without instruction — as experience 
shows — that bath-tubs have other purposes than to be 
used as coal-bins, so many of our citizens who have been 
best trained intellectually, need still to be educated in 
the art of wise giving and perhaps still wiser withhold- 
ing; to be not merely told about, but to be trained into 
the proper ways of controlling city councils and legis- 
latures — in short to be schooled into the higher citizen- 
ship. 

""' The purpose of training our citizens, whether by 
campaign speeches or in schools, is to secure better serv- 
ice for the state, greater willingness and intelligence in 
curing social evils, greater zeal in promoting social good. 

But before one can speak intelligently of the kind of 
training that our citizens need, one must consider some- 
what carefully the nature of social evils and of social 
reforms. Such reforms must all be effected either (1) 
by improving the opinions and habits and characters of 
the individual members of society, or (2) by changing 
for the better the relations existing between different 
persons and classes and institutions in society. 

Hitherto, most efforts of social reformers have been 
directed toward the reform of the individual by im- 
proving his moral character or habits, and only here and 
there, in an unsystematic way, have efforts been directed 
toward improving his relations with others. Yet pos- 
sibly the greater number of our social evils come from 



TRAINING FOR CITIZENSHIP. 7 

mal-adjustments in social relations. This undue em- 
phasis that has been often laid upon the faults of in- 
dividuals may be my excuse for emphasizing first the 
social evils that arise from social misfits. I do not 
ignore the others by any means. 

There is, of course, a constant tendency for social in- 
stitutions of all kinds to adjust themselves to social 
needs. The environment will in the long run modify 
the individual, unless the individual has pov^^er to change 
the environment; but, always, as society moves on into 
new habits, old institutions will be found unfit for use 
and much suffering must be endured in making the 
needed transition from old to new. When, for exam- 
ple, late in the last century and early in this the spin- 
ning-jenny and the power-loom were coming into gen- 
eral use in England, the hand-looms in the cottages lost 
their value, and the hands of the cottage weavers were 
forced to rest in idleness. The despair of the hungry 
whom the spirit of progress was starving to death led in 
many instances to riot; but their despair and passion 
availed nothing. The abler were forced to adopt the 
new methods ; the feebler, the more ignorant, died : but 
industrial society moved on through this suffering and 
evil into a better condition than it had ever before en- 
joyed. It was not the characters of the individual riot- 
ers and murderers that especially needed reforming ; the 
need was rather for some device to adjust quickly the 
economic machine thrown by the new inventions for the 
time being out of gear. 

"We must realize that like evils are always with us; 
must always be with us if economic society is to im- 



8 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

prove, unless we can devise a way of rapid adjustment 
to changing circumstances. The last twenty years has 
seen a revolution no less complete than that of the weav- 
ing industry. The rise of our great combinations in 
industry — the Standard Oil Trust, the Sugar Combine, 
the Telegraph Monopoly, and the hundreds of sister 
savers of expense — has brought its evils. We no longer, 
it is true, except in rare cases through ignorance of the 
suffering, permit our fellow men to starve; but many 
a manufacturer or dealer in these monopolized products 
has had his competitive business forced out of his hands ; 
thousands of the non-employed, thrown out of work by 
the monopolies, have been driven into pauperism. 
Monopolies at times prevent bankruptcy of the monopo- 
lists, but multiply bankruptcies of their competitors. 

Legal institutions suffer from like evils, and bring 
like evils upon society. Within thirty years a whole 
body of law dealing with inter-state commerce has been 
created. Under the old law cities were built up or 
ruined to suit the needs or wishes of railroad directors. 
Sometimes they bought up a tract of land, located 
towns on it, gave it special rates to help it, and reaped 
the harvest they had sown. A business man here was 
lifted into affluence, his rival swept from the industrial 
field by the favor of a good-natured, or corrupt, freight 
agent — and all because our commercial laws were be- 
hind the times. Many a college or charitable institu- 
tion finds itself hampered by the terms of an old-time 
legacy, framed to suit the needs of a bygone day ; many 
a city groans under the baleful influence of the Dart- 
mouth College case, which recognized an outworn con- 



TRAINING FOR CITIZENSHIP. 9 

tract as good as new. Our courts still permit at times 
street railways, or other corporations, under old con- 
tracts to plunder cities, while brand new laws, also, 
and new decisions made to remedy old evils, like new 
machinery, bring their hardships. 

Again, the slow action of courts — made slow by tech- 
nical rules, fitted in most cases to do exact justice — are 
not suited to the needs of many new communities in 
cases of extreme hardship. So vigilance committees 
and Judge Lynch swing to the nearest tree the horse- 
thief or riddle with bullets the violator of woman's 
honor. Such means seem in these exceptional cases at 
times the only remedies. 

So it is, also, in political institutions the world over. 
Our former methods of voting were well enough adapted 
to local government in most rural communities where 
they were first employed. They were not then abused ; 
but before they were changed they had resulted in so 
vast a system of corruption that money given by 
reputable citizens in New York bought village votes in 
Indiana and Connecticut by the thousands, and in many 
cases had so completely demoralized the voters that the 
traffic in votes was looked upon by many of the more 
ignorant and thoughtless as a proper means of income. 
" Is not my vote mine ? May I not dispose of it as I 
please ? " Even many thoughtful people do not realize 
that the ballot is a public trust. 

Most of us believe, I suppose, in popular suffrage; 
but we cannot blink the fact that the ballot in the hands 
of the negro in reconstruction days drove into bank- 
ruptcy some of our southern states, furnished a trav- 



10 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

esty on legislatures and legislators perhaps never else- 
where equalled in a civilized country, and finally drove 
the whites into the armed revolution of the Ku Klux — 
an act perhaps not so discreditable to their manhood and 
sense of justice as would have been peaceful submis- 
sion to the forms of law forced upon them. When the 
representatives of the people supply themselves with 
costly viands and elegantly furnished rooms for them- 
selves and disreputable friends at the public expense, 
free men will revolt. 

Few in that contest on either side could be much 
blamed. Social evils often do not impute conscious 
guilt to individuals ; otherwise the injunction to love 
one's neighbor would be more difficult to heed. Doubt- 
less in reconstruction days Congress acted with good in- 
tentions, though probably with some natural and par- 
donable partisan feeling; and surely no one can blame 
the negroes for their failure or for their personal unfit- 
ness to fulfill their task. There was a misfit — that was 
all. Institutions and people were not in harmony. 
Corruption, then anarchy, then an aristocracy — better 
said an oligarchy — were the natural outcome of the con- 
ditions. On one side the whites had outgrown their old 
institution of slavery ; on the other, the new institution 
of free government was fit for a more advanced people 
than the negroes, or for a more homogeneous people 
than those trying to live together in peace. To both 
sides serious evil was the result. 

In our legislatures, examples of the same kind are 
numerous. Most of the members in private life are 
honest, well-meaning men, who would like to give our 



TRAINING FOR CITIZENSHIP. \\ 

state excellent government. Unfortunately, the cir- 
cumstances of their elections, the nature of the tasks 
that they find themselves called upon to do, the close- 
ness with which they are held to the work desired by 
the party chiefs, the pressure upon them to get through 
local bills to please their constituents, prevent them 
from doing much that is of general interest, and soon 
lead them to consider an independent member with 
earnest opinions on measures of general interest as un- 
practical and visionary. 

At election times a wealthy corporation makes a 
large contribution to a campaign fund. After election 
the party leaders feel under obligations. If a bill comes 
up that affects the interest of that corporation, a hint 
to the campaign chief, the boss, will bring word to every 
legislator, if need be, who has been nominated and 
elected under the influence of the party organization. 
He is told that the interests of the party demand his 
vote. He may feel that the bill is on the face of it det- 
rimental to the state. He may not see how it is for 
the interest of his party ; but his chief says that it is of 
vital interest. He believes in his party; he is under 
obligations to the chief; in nine cases out of ten he will 
yield. Most of us would. Again, some worthy insti- 
tution in his district, say a state school for the feeble- 
minded, needs state aid and ought to have it. He in- 
troduces his bill. Other members know little about it, 
but other members also have bills calling for appropria- 
tions, many of them not worthy, but popular in their dis- 
tricts. They ask him for his vote, plead the personal 
necessity to themselves of passing their bills. He 



12 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

needs their vote for his bill. He votes for theirs, care- 
ful perhaps not to inquire too closely into their merits 
lest his conscience should prick him too hard. Thus, 
too many bad measures pass. We blame our represen- 
tatives ; but many of us would do no better. The truth 
is that our political machine needs rebuilding in many 
parts. 

Even in religious institutions changes come that bring 
often untold suffering. I need only refer to the perse- 
cutions of the Middle Ages and the Reformation. Even 
to-day men burn, though not at the stake, because they 
think in advance of their time. Many a person joining 
a church in his younger days finds that, as his sympa- 
thies broaden, as his range of spiritual vision extends, 
he no longer places the same emphasis on certain dog- 
mas as before. His fellow church members may con- 
sider him unfaithful to his duty ; he may even be made 
to feel that he has wounded grievously the hearts of 
those most dear to him — but he cannot go back. He 
may, in his suffering, impatiently blame his critics for 
their narrowness ; but this is equally unjust. They can- 
not come with him. No one is to blame. The religious 
institution is not adjusted to his needs. When he 
reaches the height from which he can overlook the 
whole field, he will see that, as there must be different 
political or social groups to suit the various political or 
social beliefs, so must there be various religious groups 
to fit the changing religious needs. The period of tran- 
sition from one group to another, if one cannot be 
tolerant enough to feel at home in either, is a time of 
suffering. The time of a general shifting in belief, as 



TRAINING FOR CITIZENSHIP. 13 

in the 16th century, is a time of revolution. Can this 
in any way be avoided ? 

Conditions are not materially different in what we 
call society in the narrower sense of that word. Most 
of us are born into a certain place in the social life of 
our town or city. So long as we stay there and are 
like our companions, we are comfortable ; but if, through 
added wealth, or higher intellectual training, or changed 
political positions, we attempt to change our places, dis- 
comfort ensues. Still greater discomfort comes, per- 
haps, if through misfortune or disgrace or poverty or 
love for evil, we take what is considered a downward 
step in the social scale. Whenever we are unsuited to 
our social surroundings, we suffer. 

But social and personal discomforts, evils, may also 
arise and often do arise likewise from what may be 
called personal disharmonies. We sometimes meet per- 
sons, who from birth, training, social experiences, man- 
ner, etc., would seem to be suited to us and whom we 
wish to know well, but with whom we are always at 
odds. Even dear friends of our childhood days some- 
times as years go by grow away from us or we from 
them as changes creep into our lives. 

All these evils, personal and institutional, when we 
look closely for their causes, throw much light on the 
nature of society and point out the necessary nature of 
social reforms. Aside from lack of conscience in the 
individual, the evils are all alike in essence ; all demand 
individual or institutional adaptation. Wliether the 
evil be economic, as in the case of the hand weavers, 
when power looms were bought ; or political, or legal, or 



14 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

religious — in all cases there has been on one side a hu- 
man mind or spirit out of harmony with its surround- 
ings. Either the individual has changed, or his sur- 
roundings have changed, and the man, under the dom- 
ination of mental and spiritual inertia, is unable to will 
a change in himself to meet the new conditions ; or if he 
makes the change, he suffers because others do not 
change with him. As one looks into the faces of men 
suffering from lack of work and finds each of them 
looking for the special work that he has been trained to 
do, and unwilling or unable to turn his hand to other 
things, one begins to realize the social significance of 
what may well be called psychical or mental inertia. 
Still more pitiable, if possible, does this mental inertia 
appear when one sees men year after year — generation 
after generation sometimes — clinging to the cherished 
name of a political party, and worshiping it for what 
it has done, as if, when the issues of the day had changed 
and even the personnel of the membership, the party re- 
mained the same. Most men are too weak, too care- 
less, or too lazy mentally to readjust their political be- 
liefs to the changing needs of the day. 

Even in spiritual or religious or educational matters, 
conditions are much the same. The great mass of peo- 
ple rest in the places into which in early days their 
parents, the circumstances of their lives, their early 
training have placed them, or they follow blindly the 
leader whom they have chosen. If great preachers and 
teachers could use their influence over their followers' 
opinions for personal gain, we should soon have religious 
and educational " bosses," as we have political bosses. 



TRAINING FOR CITIZENSHIP. 15 

How many teachers gulp educational doctrine ; how few 
make good doctrine, or even assimilate it and use it 
wisely and independently ! One feels tempted to con- 
clude that the most powerful social influence is mental 
inertia, spiritual laziness. It tends toward stability; 
but it is the stability of stagnation, of death. Social 
reform demands a force that will quicken the minds 
of men ; will render them more adaptable to their sur- 
roundings, more ready to fit themselves to the needs of 
the day. 

But, let us note for a moment, too, besides the mental 
inertia of the multitude the mental force of the inventor 
or the thinker, an activity that often causes suffering, 
though it is an inevitable preliminary to social improve- 
ment. Mental slowness, as we have seen, may cause 
the starvation of men and families who cannot readily 
learn to tend a power loom ; but the inventor of the ma- 
chine, also, till his machine is established in popular 
favor, may well have made himself miserable, because 
he realized the imperfections of the old loom on which 
he was compelled to waste his time. Nay, he may 
even starve before he can convince his fellows of the 
value of his invention. His mental keenness may bring 
him discomfort at first, and will cause his fellows suffer- 
ing later, though ultimately it will bless the world. Not 
only did Galileo and Luther suffer for their advanced 
ideas, but they caused suffering to thousands of others 
by setting the pace of life faster than common men 
could follow; and yet by their originality they became 
two of the world's greatest benefactors. 

It is a painful reflection that, while we can advance 



16 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

only by the aid of advanced thinkers, yet they and we 
must suffer in our efforts to harmonize our views. Pop- 
ular government, of course, demands these changes ; and 
we can never avoid, we can only minimize the dishar- 
mony. A large part of the work of the conscientious 
legislator is the adaptation of good bills to suit the whims 
of stupid people. 

The remedy for these evils lies in two directions: (1) 
The leader himself may have so clear a vision of the 
future of his work and of its ultimate success that he 
overlooks the present suffering to himself and to 
others for the sake of the future benefit of the world; 
(2) He may see into the nature of society and its tend- 
encies so clearly that he may bring about more readily 
than is common a readjustment of the institution itself. 

If now the evils in our society are to be removed, in 
good part, only by increasing the power of our workers 
in the industrial field to adapt themselves readily to 
their conditions, no matter what new circumstances may 
arise; or, in the political, or legal, or religious field, 
either to adapt themselves to circumstances, or to modify 
conditions by changing institutions, political, legal, 
social, one can see how completely social reforms rest 
upon education of the citizen. If our schools and col- 
leges cannot now give the kinds of education needed, 
we certainly must have wide-spread educational reform 
within and outside the schools. 

For the hand-worker, perhaps the best training that 
can be given to secure adaptability in his industrial 
activity is that of a good manual training school. But 
the question of educational reforms even for the Indus- 



TRAINING FOR CITIZENSHIP. 17 

trial life involves far more than manual training, good 
as that may be in plan and practice. Not merely skill 
in turning one's hand to any kind of mechanical work 
is needed; but of vastly more consequence is the spirit 
of adaptability, readiness to do as best one can whatever 
offers — the spirit of independence and self-respect that 
implies a willingness to stand, by one's self, if need be, 
for one's own opinions, and to do one's duty under all 
circumstances. Laboring men often refuse to adapt 
themselves to new conditions from fear of the opinion 
of their trade-unions, or from foolish pride which 
hinders them from stooping to tasks requiring less skill 
than does their own. They may be justified at times. 
I do not overlook their argument that one may become 
permanently classified with the less skilled laborers. 
Politicians hesitate to act freely for fear that they may 
alienate their party votes, or — worse yet — the party 
boss. Voters do not vote against the party for fear of 
being called irregular. Preachers hesitate to speak the 
whole truth for fear of their congregations. Congrega- 
tions hesitate to think freely from fear of the preacher 
and elders. But there must be this personal fearlessness 
and independence, if men are to adapt themselves to 
social institutions or to adapt social institutions to their 
needs. They must see clearly, decide independently and 
impartially or society must suffer. This involves, as 
I understand it, in many cases, the setting up of new 
and higher ideals of life, and habituating our citizens 
to strive for these ideals instead of for their present ones. 
Again, as men need to have personal adaptability and 
independence, they must also have tolerance for inde- 
2 



18 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

pendence in others, if social evils are to be overcome. 
If I ask that in religious matters I be allowed to think 
freely and to live in peace without a creed, I shall only 
bring lack of harmony into society, unless I am equally 
ready to let my Christian brother who wishes to do 
so, keep his creed, without calling him narrow or despis- 
ing him. If in politics I demand the right to stand 
as a democrat or republican or mugwump, I may do so 
with advantage to our political institutions if I let my 
neighbor take another position with no feeling that he 
is not doing what is right. Until I am thus tolerant, I 
am rendering political changes difficult, and am forcing 
disharmony into society in a way that will have evil 
consequences. The free use of the epithets, " anarchist, 
revolutionist," on the one hand, and " robber, conspira- 
tor," on the other, in political campaigns do not tend 
toward either harmony or remolding of institutions. 
It is irrational and of evil influence. 

Still further, if I am to work out reforms of our 
social evils, I must have a thoro knowledge of our 
social institutions, so that I may not merely fit myself 
to them so far as I can, and let my fellow citizen shape 
his course without hindrance ; but, also, that I may 
shape the institutions themselves to meet the needs of 
the times. When, for example, public opinion is chang- 
ing (let us say on the temperance question), a conflict 
is sure to arise between the present laws and the new 
habits. The student of social institutions should be 
quick to see the coming change, to know the new form 
of law that will be in harmony with the new opinion, 
and to make his influence felt in bringing about the pas- 



TRAINING FOR CITIZENSHIP. 19 

sage of the law. Legislators usually seek to follow pub- 
lic opinion, and practically they must not go too far in 
advance of it ; but we shall not only hasten progress, but 
also more nearly secure social harmony, if our laws 
somewhat precede and thus help to mold public opinion 
into definite form. The legislator ought to lead as well 
as to follow. 

Political corruption in many of our states had 
reached so low a depth that outraged public sentiment 
demanded its cessation ; but the temptation was still so 
great for political leaders and corrupt voters that unless 
the election laws were changed the evil would continue 
and society suffer. Men with a knowledge of compara- 
tive legislation were soon able to see the remedy, and 
the present ballot laws in most of our states, which 
greatly lessen the evil, have been the result; but they 
will be continually improved, and will become more and 
more successful for the next decade as the public learns 
to know them better and to appreciate better their 
value. 

!N'eeded reforms will always come in time. But mucH 
suffering, much time can be saved by an understanding 
of the needed changes obtained through a careful study 
of social institutions. For this special knowledge we 
must rely largely on our educational institutions. Few 
of them can now furnish it. 

But besides and above these special bits of political 
and social knowledge, there needs to be an ideal of the 
value and purpose of the state. That should be taught 
specifically to all our voters, in all our schools; and 
while the schools should teach politics, government, 



20 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

patriotism, the nature of society far more than they now 
do, these subjects should be taught as living realities, 
not as dead forms. 

Much time is now given to the subject in many of our 
schools, but little that is of much value is generally 
taught. Of course one will find exceptions. Usually 
the skeleton of our constitutional law is given. Our 
young people learn the names of the ofiices, the length 
of the terms of officers, the kinds of duties performed ; 
but often they do not learn the motive forces in our poli- 
tics, how the work of politics is really done, nor what 
the purpose in government is and ought to be, altho 
one may note improvement in late years. Sometimes 
the effort is made to teach patriotism by singing patriotic 
hymns, by displaying on the schoolhouse on anniversary 
days our nation's flag, by reciting the victorious deeds 
of our fathers, by conveying to the children the thought 
that this country has wider stretches of territory, more 
fertile fields, more millions of population, a better gov- 
ernment than have other countries. Some of these 
things are good, some of them are true, but few of them 
will tend strongly to cure our political ills. We have 
enough pride in country. Devotion to our country's 
good, true patriotism, demands that with impartial eye 
we see also our country's weaknesses. We may, we will, 
still love our country best, even if we do not think that 
the English or German or French people should envy us 
for our advantages. They will not do so even if we 
think they should. They, too, have been blinded by fool- 
ish teaching, and they, too, see only their superior excel- 
lencies ; for each nation has some points of superiority. 



TRAINING FOR CITIZENSHIP. 21 

True patriotism demands sacrifice, if need be, and its 
spirit is not that of a braggart. What is the true pur- ' 
pose of a country that should be taught in the schools, 
and that once breathed into the hearts of our citizens 
would remove the factional troubles that threaten our 
country, by making men of different parties none the 
less earnest, but more tolerant, and more unselfish l 
What is the citizen's ideal ? How shall we measure the 
value of a country ? Ko modern writer has expressed 
it better or with more apt illustration than James Rus- 
sell Lowell in his classic essay on Democracy : 

" The true value of a country must be weighed in 
scales more delicate than the balance of trade. The 
garners of Sicily are empty now, but the bees from all 
climes still fetch honey from the tiny garden plot of 
Theocritus. On a map of the world you may cover 
Judea with your thumb and Athens with a finger-tip 
and neither of them figures in the prices current ; but 
they still lord it in the thought and action of every 
civilized man. Did not Dante cover with his hood all 
that was Europe six hundred years ago, and, if we go 
back one hundred years, where was Germany, outside of 
Weimar? Material success is good, but only as the 
necessary preliminary to better things. The true meas- 
ure of a nation's success is the amount that it has con- 
tributed to the knowledge, the moral energy, the intel- 
lectual happiness, the spiritual hope and consolation of 
mankind. There is no other, let our candidates flatter 
us as they may." 

If we can have an educational reform that will lift 
the political ideal of our young people to this height, 



22 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

we shall find them easily adaptable to any change in 
mere form that our institutions may demand. This is 
of chief consequence. The methods of teaching this can 
be found applicable in history or literature — wherever 
the thought of the higher purpose of the state appears. 

The methods of fixing such ideals regarding man and 
the state are not formal. No teacher who is not himself 
aglow with enthusiasm for refinement, beauty, sincerity, 
truth, righteousness, can kindle in those under his charge 
this flame of the higher patriotism. Formal statements 
of ethical principles count for little toward righteousness 
when coming from the lips of a hypocrite. A cheer for 
" Old Glory " from a teacher willing to buy his place 
by political service, or party favoritism, will not go far 
toward civic culture. All teaching of the highest type 
is personal, is the benign influence of a stronger, or 
purer, or riper nature, over one less mature. The oc- 
casions for the exercise of this influence in fixing a 
child's standard of honor, may readily be found. In 
fairy tales, may it not easily be seen that the author's 
and the teacher's sympathy and admiration are for the 
worthy ? In history, a fair analysis of the characters of 
the great will show that in the long run when the touch- 
stone of the historic judgment is applied only worthy 
qualities ring true. In these days of the N^apoleonic 
revival, we may still admire the wonderful intellectual 
power, the superb self-control in moments of supreme 
importance, the matchless capacity for achievement 
along almost all lines of activity that won for the first 
ISTapoleon the name of the " Man of Destiny ; " but no 
less inevitable is the judgment of contempt for his 



TRAINING FOR CITIZENSHIP. 23 

vanity, treachery, lying. Even a little child of right im- 
pulses reading his life with a discriminating teacher 
would pity and despise his weaknesses; for the normal 
instincts of children — of adults too for that matter — are 
right. The same child would as readily see that the 
chief cause of Washington's greatness was a moral one, 
which gave him the confidence of his people. The great- 
ness of Socrates, Alexander, Newton, Darwin is based 
on service to humanity. 

The true success of character as compared with the 
empty gain of pelf is not lost sight of in literature or 
the drama. In a down-town theater with an audience of 
roughs and criminals, the applause is always hearty 
and genuine for noble sentiments, and the villain earns 
his meed of hisses. When we read King Lear, no one 
doubts that it is the dead Cordelia, faithful, honest, 
though misunderstood, who has really succeeded, and not 
her scheming sisters. Only in matters of real life when 
self is concerned does our selfishness lead us into false 
judgments and our ambitions aid us to condone evil in 
others. Children may be led to set up false standards ; 
and there is among us a too frequent custom into which 
they easily fall of confounding smartness with ability, 
and the attainment of money or office with true success. 
The example of the wise teacher, and the habit of mak- 
ing frank judgments on the right side in literature 
and history, will aid greatly in making sound judgments 
in life — especially if the skillful teacher, without too 
obvious effort, takes occasion to raise problems for the 
child to settle which will serve as precedents when real 
tests come later in life. 



24 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

Aside from personal questions, the ideals for the state 
may in the same way be touched. Lowell has given 
in a pregnant sentence the cause of the greatness of 
Athens and Judea ; but in our common school work the 
material is abundant for like judgments. What were 
the elements of strength in the various colonies ? \^Tiat 
led to success ? What to misfortune ? What was the 
influence of the slave trade and of slavery upon the 
South ? W^hy was it good policy to pay off the Revolu- 
tionary debt? What have been the influences of the 
schools as compared with the saloons upon our civiliza- 
tion? The working out of the answers to questions 
like these will fix the right ideals. 

In higher schools, in colleges and universities, more 
specific methods of political reform, comparative legis- 
lation that teaches how to fit the experiences of other 
times and countries to our own needs, can be well taught, 
if the teacher is ready and willing to look into the real 
evils in our government, to point them out with im- 
partial hand, to hold up the higher ideal, and to call on 
his classes to find the remedies. It is essential, espe- 
cially with older pupils, to see the facts of our political 
life as they are — evil as well as good. So economic 
truth, facts regarding treatment of criminals, of pau- 
pers, all principles of social development, can be taught. 
In the public schools even might incidentally be taught 
many specific facts regarding our legal rights and duties, 
elementary principles regarding contracts, torts, election 
laws, business forms, etc. 

To a great extent, too, all these subjects can be taught 
in a practical way, i. e., so that pupils may get interest 



TRAINING FOR CITIZENSHIP. 25 

enough in the ideal to begin to form the habit of action 
which looks toward its realization. Even social ethics 
can be drilled into people. In one of the most promi- 
nent suburbs of Chicago some few years since, I knew 
well a large-hearted superintendent who made it a prac- 
tice from time to time as occasion arose, to tell of 
cases of need in the neighborhood, and to ask if the 
children would contribute a little, preferably from 
their own earnings. He was careful to teach them to 
distinguish between worthy and unworthy cases, and 
to give from sympathy, not from pity. I recall one 
accident that killed the father of a family and left the 
widow and six small children in a mere shanty in the 
dead of winter with little clothing, little food, and little 
coal. The winds from Lake Michigan sweeping up 
through the cracks in the single floor in zero weather 
made existence difficult, comfort impossible. A brief 
story to the school one morning brought enough to buy 
coal and food and needed clothing. The next morning 
the superintendent told what had been done, and asked 
if a little more money could be raised to bank the house 
to keep out the freezing winds. The true spirit of 
Charity rang out in the excited tones of one of the 
boys as he shouted, " Why, Mr. B., can't we kids do 
that? We want to do something." The boys that 
banked the widow's hut in Chicago winter weather had 
learned well the spirit of the lesson. A charity society 
in that school with an investigating committee guided 
by the principal might well serve as a model for other 
schools eager for educational reform. 

Of far more consequence in the training of citizens, 



26 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

however, because of more general application, and be- 
cause character and habits that run through all our work 
are of more consequence than mere knowledge, or prac- 
tice in philanthropy or in business or social life, or 
even than the highest ideal of the state, is the culti- 
vation in our schools of the spirit of impartiality, which 
gives sound judgment, and a feeling of personal respon- 
sibility. 

This strikes at the root of all educational method, for 
from it comes a habit of work that will greatly aid in the 
mastery of any subject. While this characteristic is 
often a personal gift, it can still to a great extent be 
cultivated — both in school and life. The natural at- 
titude for most of us to take on any question is that of 
the advocate. We are right. Those on the other side 
are wrong. We often go so far as to condemn unheard 
people who are as sincere as we are. This mental at- 
titude engenders strife, prevents compromise, stifles 
truth in the embryo. The true attitude of a man 
and citizen is that of a judge, who expects in cases of 
dispute to find some truth on both sides ; who is willing 
to see the good and the evil alike, so far as they exist; 
who is prepared to find both parties sincere, but with 
different points of view. The mere effort to take this 
mental attitude, the mere saying to one's self that the 
person on the other side is, in the minds of others, as 
likely to be right as are we, will be enough to render 
our opinion worth more than usual. 

To be impartial we must first do some thinking. 
Much has been said of late years about methods of 
learning by rote in school aud about the necessity of 



TRAINING FOR CITIZENSHIP. 27 

teaching children to think. Only lately I found another 
of the standard examples of the failure of our schools 
in this regard. A professorial father, disappointed at 
his son's backwardness in school, asks him : " How many 
cents will fifteen apples cost at twenty cents a dozen ? " 
" Fifteen times twenty," is the reply, and when the 
father remonstrates, the son replies : " Teacher says, 
' how many ' means to multiply." I heard my own small 
boy trying to find out the difference between the words 
" times " and " and," as used in his number work, say- 
ing that " times " meant multiply, while " and " meant 
add. Evidently the number work was only words to 
him. 

In our higher schools and colleges, there is often a 
tending toward extremes, toward favoring the position 
of the advocate that for the students is injurious ever 
after in social life. In one of our great western uni- 
versities debating societies are popular, and a prize de- 
bate the great intellectual exhibition of the year. An 
instructor in political economy has told me that it is 
exceedingly difiicult to get the students in that university 
to consider impartially any controverted question which 
may come up for consideration in the class-room. All 
are ready to advocate one side and close their minds 
to reason on the other. This would seem trivial were 
it not that our politics, our schools, our religion, our 
social life throughout is permeated with this intolerant 
spirit. We are all proud to be partisans in politics or 
religion : we ought to weep over it ; for it is chiefly this 
intolerance that keeps us from adjusting ourselves read- 
ily to the changing conditions of social life, as well as 



28 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

from easily changing our institutions to suit the needs 
of our people. This spirit of fairness to both sides can 
be cultivated in our schools and colleges. 

In all true teaching of science in which the pupil is 
led to observe independently and to draw his ovtra con- 
clusions, we find some of the best methods for inducing 
this habit of mind. But, possibly, because in our lives 
as citizens most of our judgments must be moral judg- 
ments, based on premises as variable in kind as is human 
nature and social customs, we shall probably find more 
aid in history and literature. We must teach impar- 
tiality by giving practice in forming judgments. Most 
children in the public schools are taught to look upon 
England as a tyrannous country. Would it not be bet- 
ter to ask the children to find out why England felt 
justified in trying to subdue her rebellious colonies; 
and to let them see that the question was not entirely 
one-sided ? Again, why was slavery so much more prev- 
alent in the South than in the ^orth ? Were the South- 
erners all bad ? Was Washington, keeper of slaves, 
a worse man than Wendell Phillips, the abolitionist ? 
England has taught us much that is helpful and useful 
regarding the civil service and ballot laws. Can our 
pupils find out other things in which she and other 
countries are to be considered more advanced than is 
the United States ? We need not fear to weaken the 
sentiment of patriotism. The true patriot is eager to 
improve his country ; only the demagogue tries to flatter 
his followers into senseless content. Our history is so 
full of glorious success that our citizens need no special 



TRAINING FOR CITIZENSHIP. 29 

Incentive to pride of country. They need, rather, a 
keener sense of responsibility. 

It has been urged at times that work which deals with 
politics and the nature of the state is too advanced for 
the public schools, at any rate for the lower grades ; that 
our children have not the proper apperceptive material ; 
cannot connect such work with anything that they have 
previously learned. Such an opinion, however, comes 
from a mistaken conception of the nature of the state and 
of government, and of the purposes for which they exist. 

We are all too accustomed to think of the state as 
something remote from us. If we speak of state aid for 
education or state ownership of railways, our minds 
turn at once to the capital city of our state, or to Wash- 
ington, the seats of active government. We need not 
merely to know, but to feel, to make real and habitual 
to our thinking the fact that we, as individuals, are part 
of the state ; that it can not exist without us, and that 
no one of us, strong or weak, young or old, voter or non- 
voter, fails to exert influence on the government or can 
put off responsibility for what is done by the state. Our 
influence may be weakened by a boss ; we may try to 
avoid responsibility by remaining away from the polls ; 
but, not only our congressmen and legislators, but every 
voter who aids in an election ; every woman who 
strengthens a husband's or father's arm, not merely in 
voting, but in business or social life ; even the new- 
born babe, whose needs stimulate its father to more activ- 
ity in labor, love for which makes its mother kinder, 
more charitable, more considerate of others, are powers 
in the state : and everyone who has reached years of 



30 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

discretion ought to be made to realize his responsibility, 
for the state. 

Our human natures force us into governmental rela- 
tions, in order that our lives may be richer and nobler 
than they could be were we to live in isolation. Com- 
plete life is possible only in the associated state. As 
parts of that state, with that purpose of striving for the 
" complete life " before us, our duties not merely as 
Christians or as men and women, but also as citizens, re- 
quire us to care for the welfare of our fellows. Even in 
governmental affairs, the personal interests of citizens 
are largely local. Woodrow Wilson has called attention 
to the fact that of the twelve greatest reform measures 
of all kinds passed in England within the last century, 
only one before our civil war and only two since the war 
amendments to our constitution would have been in this 
country matters for the central government. The others 
would have been dealt with by the separate states. Even 
matters more strictly local still are of great importance 
to the individual. During our last presidential cam- 
paign (1896) farmers were greatly concerned about the 
monetary standard, and millions of dollars were ex- 
pended in attempting to change their opinions on the 
question. Yet any thoughtful student will concede 
that the prosperity of the average well-to-do farmer 
would be affected more, and more permanently, by a 
change in the quality of the road between his farm and 
the nearest good market town from that of the average 
dirt road to that of a good macadam than he would be 
by any proposed change in the monetary standard. 



TRAINING FOR CITIZENSHIP. 31 

Beneficial to him as a tariff on wool might be, the 
chances are that in the great majority of cases the ten 
dollars in cash and two days in time spent in attending 
political rallies, if expended in battening the cracks in 
his sheds wonld have saved him more money in lambs 
than he will gain in the increased price of wool from 
the new tariff. Even the average carpenter and mason 
has much more real personal concern in the election of 
the next school teacher than in that of the next Presi- 
dent. As a student of political science keenly interested 
in all matters of political controversy, I am gratified 
to be consulted by my next door neighbor regarding the 
attitude of the United States Supreme Court on the in- 
come tax ; but as a practical business man with a small 
kitchen garden, my real financial interest and my per- 
sonal comfort and peace of mind are far more concerned 
in his views regarding hen coops and the moral duties of 
poultry keepers. I do not wish at all to minimize the 
duties of citizens toward our central government — most 
of us are too careless in that regard — but I do wish to 
make it clear that we do not draw these things ordinarily 
with the right perspective ; and that when we consider 
the duties of citizens from the right standpoint, we shall 
observe that even small children are able to find tasks 
suitable for citizens and to understand the most funda- 
mental of all political duties — honesty and fair dealing 
toward one's fellows. As in our later methods of teach- 
ing geography, we begin with the school and go out 
thence to the town, the state, the nation, so in teaching 
political duties, take first those to our schoolmates and 
neighbors. 



32 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

The essence of all good teaching, however, is the put- 
ting into practice in life of the principles laid down in 
the books or in lectures, or, better than either, brought 
out by the children themselves through skillful ques- 
tions. It may well be worth our while to point out some 
at least of the civic duties that children can perform. 
Many of them are often performed now without any con- 
sciousness of their public nature. When a pupil in a 
district school I trudged off with a comrade a quarter of 
a mile to bring a pail of drinking water, I believe that 
an added value would have been given to the delight of 
the outdoor freedom, if I had been made to realize that 
I was doing a citizen's duty, working for the public ! 
If our children knew that the desks which they so care- 
lessly carve and the buildings which they so wantonly 
deface at times belong not to an indefinite, abstract en- 
tity, " the town," but to themselves, their parents, their 
fellows, and that an injury done to that building is rob- 
bery of their friends, they would be more careful. If 
they were made to see that by care of school buildings 
and furniture they could aid in lowering the tax rate; 
that by order in school and a spirit of helpfulness 
toward their teacher, a public official, they were perform- 
ing patriotic duties, their school would take on an added 
interest and appear of more importance. Is it hard for 
a child twelve years of age to understand that the man 
who swears down his assessment unduly is practically 
putting his hand into his neighbors' pockets by increas- 
ing their taxes unjustly ? Children trained to see what 
the state is and the real and close relation existing be- 
tween public and private property would not be so reck- 



TRAINING FOR CITIZENSHIP. 33 

less in later years in squandering public funds in foolish 
appropriations as are many of our legislators who look 
upon the public treasury as a bottomless well from which 
to draw good gifts for their constituents and especially 
for their near friends and relatives. 

In some of our cities, Boston, Philadelphia, l^ew 
York, " the youngsters have been formed into a Juvenile 
Street Cleaning Brigade." The members are pledged to 
pick up stray pieces of paper and deposit them in re- 
ceptacles provided by the city. In one of the Chicago 
schools, some years ago, there was a charitable organiza- 
tion formed among the pupils under the direction of the 
principal that did much practical, intelligent work, quite 
after the type of that done by the best societies of adults. 
Such practical work can be found in many fields, and in 
no other way can the children be so directly trained as 
through practice. 

The most direct practical work in politics by children 
that I have seen is that done in the George Junior Re- 
public at Freeville, New York, where the young people 
twelve to eighteen years of age make their own laws; 
have their own courts and police ; punish their own 
criminals with fines and imprisonment that are not 
play but real locking up in real cells, real hard labor 
and poor food ; and use a boy and girl public opinion 
that is even more powerful than that in adult society 
because it is franker and more positive. This is a real 
share in government that can rarely be given in schools. 

But where in the school and university curriculum 
shall this training be given? It is evident from what 
has already been said that the most fundamental things, 



34 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

the prime essentials in training for citizenship — lofty 
ideals, independence and impartiality of judgment, re- 
gard for the rights of others — are to be taught always, 
in every class, in all grades, and the methods are sub- 
stantially the same from kindergarten to university. As 
^ children ought to live in an atmosphere of good English, 
good temper, good morals, so ought they to live in an 
atmosphere of tolerance, independence, impartiality of 
judgment, regard for the rights of others, thoughtfulness 
regarding one's own duties — and the teacher must create 
this atmosphere. The turning of the attention to public 
duties can be begun and carried on informally in all 
classes, as has been suggested, from the beginning; but 
especially in studies in literature, and history, and geog- 
raphy will the relations of men in society and of nations, 
one with another, be brought out. In those subjects 
specific information can be given — and especially in 
them can pupils be led by skillful questioning to reason 
out for themselves the nature of the fundamental econo- 
mic and political relations of trade, transportation, 
money, labor, of taxes, of forms of government, of the 
ruler and the ruled. 'No special formal training, with 
separate text-books, need be given, perhaps, in economics, 
or even in civil government, until the college is reached, 
if the teachers are thoroughly alive to the opportunities 
for such training in kindred subjects; but probably in 
most high schools such subjects should be formally in- 
troduced. 

In the colleges and universities, of course, should 
come the formal studies of constitutional and admin- 
istrative law and politics, native, historical and com- 



TRAINING FOR CITIZENSHIP. 35 

parative, with history, and ethics, and philosophy. 
But, I pass these with simply the mention, because that 
is understood by all ; and primarily because even in the 
universities, Avhere one keeps in mind the purpose of 
' training for citizenship,' of molding men to influence 
society for good or evil, information in administrative 
law and comparative politics, even for most graduate 
students, is of less importance than the practice of 
forming impartial judgments on present political 
methods, and of thus learning how righteousness must 
rule if the state is to live. The awakening of a living 
interest in public affairs, the arousing of a determina- 
tion to see and judge political life fairly and impartially 
as it is, the kindling of a resolve in the student's mind 
to stand for the best and noblest measures in the state, 
and never to lose sight of the fundamental purpose of 
• civilized society, to enrich and ennoble the lives of the 
citizens, nor of the essential condition of success, bring- 
ing the life of the state into accord with the principles 
of justice and righteousness — these are still in the 
university as in the primary school, the most important 
tasks of the teacher, and those requiring the highest 
gifts. It must not be forgotten, too, that these purposes 
should be in the mind of the mathematician and the 
biologist, as well as in that of the historian and politician 
(I use the word in its proper sense) ; for while the latter 
may have opportunity to inculcate the lesson more fre- 
quently, the occasion comes not rarely to all, and the 
method is, after all, mainly a matter of a living 
example, so far as the spirit is concerned. 

So far as one deals with the study of formal prin- 



36 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

ciples, of course, one can to best advantage employ the 
inductive methods for which, in every community, an 
abundance of material is found. 

A word should be said about educational means out- 
side the schools and colleges, and the influence of such 
activity upon society. While we must expect that great 
social reforms which involve changes in the dispositions 
or habits of the people will be completed only with com- 
ing generations, still one ought everywhere to keep good 
influences at work. Much can be accomplished; and 
some of those improvements that involve only changes 
in the forms of institutions, or in the relations of indi- 
viduals can often be carried through by earnest people in 
a short time, especially if the plans have no political par- 
tisan aspect. I once saw an important law put through 
the New York legislature, merely as the result of a few 
sentences dropped in a public lecture. The idea was 
fruitful, was non-partisan. The result was a commission 
which made some of the best suggestions regarding legis- 
lative methods ever made in America, suggestions that 
there is reason to hope will bear fruit yet in the state 
of their origin. Often a university extension course, or 
a course of study in a local club, or school, will lead to 
action which brings great good to the whole community. 
The churches ought always to be, and often are, power- 
ful influences toward political improvement, especially 
when they keep out of politics and devote themselves to 
cultivating and practicing high ideals. And it must not 
be forgotten that a social reform in even one small com- 
munity is often wide-reaching in its effects. Think of 
Pestalozzi's story of the influence of the wise Gertrude, 



TRAINING FOR CITIZENSHIP. 37 

the typical model citizen. The experiment with the 
liquor traffic in Gothenburg, Sweden, has revolutionized 
the system in Norway and Sweden, has set reformers 
talking the world over, and is likely to result in untold 
benefit to many peoples. The methods of work outside 
the school are the same as those within : Give knowledge, 
give ideals, give impartiality, and independence, and 
righteousness. 

To sum up our conclusions, then, good citizenship not 
only can be promoted by educational means, but a chief 
essential for ultimate success in social reforms is that 
we train up citizens ; that the people be taught to under- 
stand better the nature of social institutions ; that they 
realize that not all, but a large part of our social evils 
come not from wickedness or hard-heartedness or in- 
justice — though all these, too, bring evils in their 
train — but merely from a mal-adjustment of social 
relations. They should realize also that these evils can 
be overcome at times by merely slight changes in 
methods of social work if only students of society can be 
found to suggest wise changes in methods. But most 
important of all, is the education of the people to that 
flexibility of temperament and culture that will enable 
them readily to adapt themselves to new conditions, to 
that impartiality of spirit, that judicial habit of thought, 
that feeling of personal responsibility which will aid 
them to see truth even v;hen unwelcome, and to that zeal 
for truth and righteousness which will lead them to be 
willing to do their duty, and will thus fit them to adjust 
themselves best to the places in which they can render to 
society the greatest service. 



II. 

THE SOCIAL BASIS OF EDUCATIOK* 

" On well-doing for the common good I bestow my pains." 

— Pindar, Pythian Ode xi. 

In the discussion of public school education of what- 
ever grade, from the primary school to the university 
and professional schools, it is especially fitting to con- 
sider it somewhat carefully from the social and political 
standpoints. If private individuals are to receive their 
education at the hands of the state, at the expense of the 
public, the public should receive an equivalent service 
in return. It is also very desirable, although I fear 
at the present time not very common, that the individual 
recipient of this education should recognize his obliga- 
tions to the state therefor. 

It has been customary for our teachers to say that 
the primary purpose in education is the development 
of the individual, self-realization, the training of one's 
natural powers to their fullest extent; and there is no 
particular objection to considering this as the purpose 
of education, provided that in the development of the 
individual we are to secure also the development of the 
citizen. We are to fit the pupils through their indi- 
vidual development for the best service in business and 
social life and in politics. 

* Address before the Department of Education, Cornell Uni- 
versity. Published in the Educational Review, December, 1905. 

39 



40 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

From the social and political points of view, as well 
as from the highest ethical point of view, we may say 
that a man's value is measured in terms of service to his 
fellow men. Our problem as educators, then, is to fit our 
pupils so that each one will, on the whole and in the long 
run, in his own place in society and in his own way, by 
and through this self-development, render to his fellow 
men the best service of which he is capable. 

It must not be overlooked, however, that the services 
of individuals and of the state are reciprocal. Not 
merely is the individual bound to use his powers for the 
good of his fellow men, but society has its organization 
as a state in order that its individual members may re- 
ceive their highest development. It is only through the 
best equipped individuals that we can have the greatest 
advance in society and the most perfect state ; but it is 
likewise true, on the other hand, that only in the best 
equipped and best organized state are we likely to se- 
cure the influences which will produce individuals of 
the highest type. 

The problem of the social side of education must be 
treated from two points of view — that of society in the 
broad sense of the word, and that of the state, society 
organized for purposes of government. 

SOCIETY. 

We shall need to consider somewhat in detail the real 
meaning, the fundamental nature of society, in order to 
see its relations to our public schools. The conception 
itself is a very complex one, or perhaps it would be bet- 
ter to say that the word " society " embodies a number 



THE SOCIAL BASIS OF EDUCATION. 41 

of different conceptions more or less closely allied one 
to the other. By a society we do not mean merely people 
together, but people so grouped together that there are 
certain relations existing between them which are more 
or less permanent. 

The various kinds of societies may then be classified 
in many different ways. For our use in this discussion, 
they are perhaps most easily grouped by the purposes 
for which they are organized. The church, for ex- 
ample, means a group of people united for the gratifi- 
cation of their religious desires. Not a number of 
people bowing together in unison would constitute a 
church, unless this act of bowing together gives mutual 
religious aid. There must, too, be some form of organ- 
ization and this organization must contribute toward 
the satisfaction of religious desire. Generally speak- 
ing, churches are completely organized with rules of 
admission, rules for dismissal, obligations of mutual 
aid which members take upon themselves, confessions 
of belief by which people of harmonious desires are 
brought together, and other methods to secure the pur- 
pose of the organization. 

The school, is an excellent example of a society with 
its definite organization and government contributing 
directly to the purpose of training its pupils. The school 
system of a city is another society of a wider range for 
the same purpose, as is also a university or a polytechnic 
school. There are, of course, debating and literary so- 
cieties of all kinds in schools and colleges and in the 
community that have a more or less definite organization 
which determines the membership, and which aids in 



4:2 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

contributing to the purpose of the society itself. In the 
same way, so-called clubs have their organizations, their 
officers, their rules for admission and dismissal, all con- 
tributing toward the common end. 

In a much more general sense we speak of " society " 
in the fashionable world, or the community of general 
social intercourse in any locality where there is, to be 
sure, a fashion, but where fashion is local and the 
people are not ordinarily considered " fashionable." 
Even in this society, altho there is no formal organi- 
zation, there is an informal organization which is well 
understood, so much so that certain individuals are 
regularly spoken of as " leaders " in each society, and 
their will largely determines what that society shall do. 
So also, largely as a matter of custom, certain rules of 
good society \_i. e. practically, laws] come to be quite 
generally recognized. Persons are admitted into each 
social group ; and, if a person sins too flagrantly against 
the generally accepted customs of " society," he, or more 
likely she, will find herself excluded as effectively as 
one dismissed from a church organization, although 
no formal vote will be taken and no formal procedure 
has been followed. We see, nevertheless, that even in 
this meaning of the word "society," complex as it is 
and vague as it is, there exist the elements of organ- 
ization and purpose — that of common activity or com- 
mon amusement in ordinary affairs of life. One is a 
member of this society ordinarily without any will of 
his own, without any formal action, even being un- 
conscious often of the fact that there is any organiza- 
tion; but the reality of such a society and its influence 



THE SOCIAL BASIS OF EDUCATION. 43 

in our political life and in the progress of the world can- 
not be questioned. 

ECONOMIC SOCIETY. 

Somewhat more definite, altho perhaps no less com- 
plex, and possibly quite as wide in its influence upon 
civilization, is economic society. By economic society 
we mean, of course, that grouping of individuals and 
organizations of all types by which we carry on busi- 
ness so as to satisfy our desires for goods of all kinds, 
tangible and intangible. Ordinarily we do not recog- 
nize how extremely complex is this economic society, 
and how interrelated in this society are most of 
the actions of all its individual members. At your 
breakfast table this morning perhaps you had a cup 
of coffee. To give you that cup of coffee were required 
the services of your cook and the grocer ; but the coffee 
was perhaps grown in Brazil or in far-off Java, and in 
order that you might have coffee suited to your taste, 
skilled experts along that line had probably blended 
different kinds from different quarters of the globe. To 
bring it to your table had required the complex organi- 
zation of the railways and the services of sailors on 
probably more than one steamship line, the planters and 
their servants, the importing and exporting merchants 
with the bankers who negotiated the money exchanges, 
and the law makers of different states that formulated 
the rules under which all these lines of business have 
been carried on. And even this omits the other group, 
or complex of various groups, that must be added to 
bring you sugar, provided you take sugar in your coffee, 



44 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

to say nothing of the farmers and farmers' organizations 
that probably contribute their share also if cream is 
added. It is probably no exaggeration whatever to say 
that, in order to give you one cup of coffee suited to your 
taste, thousands of people and hundreds of thousands of 
dollars had to work together in harmony performing 
this service for you. Generally speaking, also, each one 
of those employed in this great complexity of services 
has received his pay in proportion to the value of 
service that he has rendered, altho, to be sure, there 
may have been cases of unjust oppression which 
have prevented due compensation being rendered for 
some service ; and if you in turn have done your share 
in paying your bills for your coffee and sugar and 
cream, you have rendered full compensation in due pro- 
portion to each one of these thousands that have worked 
for you. You have worked for each of them. Every- 
where in our home lives we meet with like examples, 
illustrating the great complexity of our economic organi- 
zation and the interrelation which exists and must ex- 
ist among all individuals if society of anything but 
the lowest type is to be developed. 

SOCIAL EESPONSIBILITT. 

The subject, too, may well be considered from the 
moral point of view. When John Wesley once saw 
staggering along the road a drunken vagrant on his 
way from the ditch to the jail, he exclaimed : " But for 
the grace of God, there goes John Wesley ! " In these 
days, in our common terminology, we are more likely to 
say " environment," or to intimate some special personal 



THE SOCIAL BASIS OF EDUCATION. 45 

influence than to say " grace of God ; " but in either 
case, we recognize that some power outside of the in- 
dividual has great influence in molding his character 
and determining his course in life. If in a fit of 
drunken rage a father kills his child, who is responsible ? 
Himself primarily, of course ; he ought to have known 
better than to get drunk. But, perhaps, was not his 
father responsible also in part for not having properly 
trained him in his youth ? Did not possibly his teacher 
at school fail in his duty to give him proper discipline 
and higher ideals ? Were not, perchance, his fellow 
pupils responsible in part for their mistreatment of him 
for minor faults, or possibly merely for minor personal 
qualities for which he was in no way to blame, but which 
drove him out of the uplifting influence of their com- 
panionship ? Possibly many of the better citizens 
should, also in part, be held responsible from the fact 
that they have neglected to make right laws regulating 
the sale and use of intoxicating liquors. Possibly some 
of us, in our anxiety to look after our own welfare by 
securing laws that would help our business, have put 
into our Legislatures short-sighted men whose time 
has been devoted to " playing politics " instead of caring 
for the good of society, and we are all of us more or 
less responsible. It is hard to escape the conclusion 
that for almost every crime or every ill of whatever 
nature under which society suffers, Ave are all of us, we 
and our ancestors, responsible, each to a greater or 
less degree in proportion to the conscientiousness and 
thoughtfulness with which we have tried to discharge 
our duties toward our fellows. 



46 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

It must be kept in mind, too, in any such discussion 
as this, that probably the only practical criterion of 
right in each society in the long run, so far as any de- 
termination of social action is concerned, is public 
opinion as to what constitutes the welfare of society. 
That public opinion has probably been greatly shaped 
through years or centuries of more or less conscious ob- 
servation of the effects of the various actions that are 
considered good or bad upon the social group, either 
as a whole, or as made up of its individuals. In some 
of the most highly civilized and religious societies of the 
ancient days, polygamy was recognized as right, and 
doubtless in certain stages of society the marriage cus- 
tom of monogamy would have resulted in the extinction 
of the society. In the primitive days slavery was a good 
as compared with the end that otherwise would have 
befallen a captive in war. Some people might go even 
farther and agree with Aristotle that slavery in the mild 
form in which it was practiced among the ancient 
Greeks of his day was a good for society, when the 
slaves were the " natural " slaves, that is, the people 
who did not have the intelligence and directing power 
which would make them capable of such service to the 
state as they might render when held under the tutelage 
of their superiors. 

Society, and the best society, is not merely the end 
toward which the attention of our children should be 
directed ; but we must recognize also that our present 
society must be the determining force in directing what 
means shall be employed to improve our conditions of 
life. It thus behooves educational thinkers to place 



THE SOCIAL BASIS OF EDUCATION. 47 

before the public, so as to shape public opinion in the 
right way, the means by which our higher social ideals 
may best be carried out through our public schools. 

THE STATE. 

Of far greater significance for progress than any 
other form of society is the political society which we 
call the state. By the state we mean society organized 
for purposes of governing, with the understanding that 
this organized society will employ force upon its individ- 
ual members, if need be, in order to carry out its wishes. 

By government we mean the group of men who, acting 
together, constitute the organ by which the will of 
the state is formulated into definite rules or laws and 
carried out in practice. 

There are many ways in which the state differs from 
other societies, such as the church, or universities, or 
literary societies, or even economic society. In the 
first place, it is supreme in power within its own recog- 
nized territory. Other societies are subordinate. While 
they have their rules and enforce them, the authority 
by which they enforce them must come from the state. 

Second, its power is inclusive, extending over all 
persons within the territory, and determining to a very 
great extent the lives of all. The social status to a con- 
siderable degree and even the legal rights of the unborn 
babe are determined by the state. The state makes 
provisions for the proper care and nurture and training 
of children until they become able to direct their own 
affairs. The conditions under which people may make 
marriage contracts and enter into the marital relations, 



48 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

as well as the obligations resting upon husband and 
wife, are fixed by the state. It also determines the rules 
and regulations by which men must earn their living 
in civilized society; it often controls to a considerable 
extent their food and dwellings, even their clothing, 
and their amusements; it imposes upon them many 
duties toward their fellow men, and rigidly prescribes 
their duties in support of the state itself even to the 
extent of calling upon them to sacrifice their lives, if 
need be, in its interest. In many cases it makes special 
provision for the care and relief from duties of the 
aged and infirm, while leaving to them as far as pos- 
sible, the rights and privileges accorded to all persons 
of normal intellect. Even the conditions of death are 
largely controlled by the state. Questions of sanitation, 
questions of the treatment of epidemics, the regulation 
of modes of burial or cremation are rigidly controlled, 
so that it is scarcely too much to say that no person liv- 
ing within the state is ever free from its domination, or 
ever lacks its protecting care. 

In what ways the state shall exercise this control, in 
what ways it shall administer this care, how great its 
activity shall be, or how small, is a matter which only 
the state itself can determine. The individual members 
of the state, as such, have no power of direction. The 
judgment of the community organized for government, 
the state, is the one controlling power. 

THE STATE REFLECTS THE CITIZENS. 

But while we speak of the state in these general terms, 
it is not an abstraction. The state is made up of the 



THE SOCIAL BASIS OF EDUCATION. 49 

persons in the community, — the weak and the strong, 
the indolent and the active. We ourselves compose the 
state; and in our organized capacity, acting together, 
we select our own agents of government and determine 
under whatever form our government may take, what 
they shall do. 

The state also, far from being a mere abstract entity 
without feeling, is distinctly human in its activity, and 
in many cases is subject even to the whims and passions 
of individual humanity ; for the government, altho the 
agent of the combined wills of the individual mem- 
bers of the state, is nevertheless itself composed of a few 
men who act, naturally, subject to a considerable extent 
to their own passions and weaknesses, inasmuch as they 
are given usually a large amount of discretion. The 
state, in consequence, if under a despotic form of gov- 
ernment, may be great, powerful, decisive in its actions, 
if its ruling monarch is a man of will and decision ; or 
it may be timid and vacillating, if its monarch is a 
weakling. Even in a republic where the rulers are di- 
rectly chosen by the people and where the government is 
made up of numerous individuals, it frequently happens 
that a man in an important position is of so positive a 
nature that the state at once assumes a new attitude to- 
ward all important que'^tions; or, again, the counsels 
of a number of weak officials may be so halting and 
vacillating that the state itself takes on that tone. 

What we as individuals think of the state as a rule 

depends upon our own circumstances in the state and 

upon how we feel that we are treated by the officials. 

If we are poor, unfortunate, and lacking in self-reliance, 

4 



50 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

particularly if we feel that the under officials with whom 
we perhaps may come most often in contact, and who 
therefore represent for us the state, are arbitrary and 
cruel, we shall look upon the state with aversion and 
fear. If, on the other hand, those officials with whom 
our relations are most intimate are wise and temperate, 
and if we feel that the state thru its schools or post- 
office or other dej^artment nearest our activities is aiding 
us in every way possible, we shall look upon the state 
as a beneficent institution to which we owe our all. 

So, also, the activities of the state, in the long run, 
and the effects which it produces upon the population 
are really determined by what we ourselves as citizens, 
acting in our corporate capacity, desire. We may make 
the state control many activities, or we may limit its 
powers most rigidly. We may give to ourselves rulers 
wise and benevolent, provided we ourselves have the 
wisdom to select such rulers, or we may permit the state 
to drift into the hands of the active corrupt who will 
control us and our means for their own selfish interests 
and against the welfare of the public. 

It is of vital importance that we ourselves realize ex- 
actly what our relations to the state are, and that we see 
to it that the pupils in our schools realize the nature of 
society and of the state (that organization of society 
which positively directs and controls the actions of so- 
ciety in governmental matters), provided we wish to 
have our schools train not merely self-centered indi- 
viduals, but citizens whose action will be wise, practical, 
unselfish, and directed toward the common good. 

In our school organization, and in our teaching, there- 



THE SOCIAL BASIS OF EDUCATION. 51 

fore, we must keep continually in mind the interrela- 
tions of different individuals each to the other. We 
must impress upon our pupils the thought that the test 
of value for the individual is the service which he can 
render to his fellow men.-<>4We must see that direct action 
in society is largely dependent upon the state and com- 
pulsory force, and that as educators we are to fit our 
pupils for service to the public by making them individ- 
uals of the highest type, and by showing them how they 
can use their power of control thro the state in the 
wisest and most beneficent way. 

INDIVIDUAL TRAITS AFFECTING SOCIETY. 

Before taking up specifically the subjects of the school 
curriculum with reference to their service in producing 
the best results in the direction of social betterment, it 
is important to consider briefly one or two of the most 
striking mental traits usually found among our citizens 
which are, on the whole, antisocial in their nature, in 
order that we may see best the diflSculties to overcome. 
It will not be possible, of course, to analyze all such 
traits; we must rather call attention to only two or 
three of the more important ones. 

I am rather inclined to the opinion that the two most 
important mental and moral characteristics which are 
responsible for our social evils are laziness (perhaps one 
should rather say mental and moral inertia), and selfish- 
ness. 

MENTAL AND MORAL INERTIA. 

Practically all progress in society comes from the 
fact that a certain individual has been able to overcome 



52 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

his mental inertia, and instead of drifting with the 
multitude or moving in the lines of least resistance 
among the customs and habits of his ancestors and 
neighbors, has thought out some new and better mode 
of action, and has pushed forward in that way. Unless 
we stop to consider carefully our habits of life, we do 
not realize how absolutely in most cases we are domi- 
nated by custom. The fashions of the clothes we wear;, 
the nature of the food that we eat, the ways in which 
we entertain others and are ourselves entertained, 
the ways in which our work is done, what we shall 
think on questions of politics, or, in other words, the 
choice of the political parties to which we belong, what 
we shall think on religious matters, or the churches 
which we shall join — everything, practically, for nine 
out of ten of us is determined by the way in which our 
parents have thought and lived, by the way in which our 
associates live and act. Careful students of politics are 
of the opinion that only a very small number, probably 
not ten per cent, of the voters in any election, think out, 
— or even think of trying to think out — the issues of 
the day and vote conscientiously upon them. It is so 
much easier to let their thinking be done by those who 
are framing the party platforms and giving the names 
to the parties' creeds. It is easy to be a Methodist if 
your parents and friends are Methodists; it is easy to 
be a Roman Catholic if, as a child, you have been 
brought up in that church ; but it is hard, very hard, to 
think thru the question of one's religious and moral 
obligations and to make up one's mind independently, 
especially if such action would be likely to bring one into 
conflict with his relatives and friends. 



THE SOCIAL BASIS OF EDUCATION. 53 

Likewise in the industrial world. As has been often 
suggested, a large part of the suffering in the community 
comes simply from the maladjustment of economic re- 
lations. New inventions bring about new processes of 
manufacture and throw out of employment large num- 
bers of men who, on account of their mental inerta and 
their lack of suitable knowledge, find it difficult, often 
impossible, to change into a new field of work. It is 
probably no exaggeration to say that boss rule in politics, 
the power of the fanatic in religion, the control at times 
of great organizations of laboring men by a hot-headed 
leader, as well as the failure of our courts to adapt their 
decisions to meet new conditions and the slowness 
with which our legislators remove old abuses are all 
due to this mental and moral inertia which makes it 
easier, on the one hand, to follow a positive leader upon 
whom we have been accustomed to rely than to oppose 
him or to think out new ways of action for ourselves, 
and, on the other hand, to drift along in our old ways 
of thinking and doing rather than to work out new 
rules for action which new conditions may demand. 

Besides being thus a negative force, if the expression 
be permitted, that may be used by unscrupulous leaders 
of positive character to the detriment of society, it will 
be seen also, nevertheless, that this mental inertia (and 
it is not too much to say that it is moral inertia also) 
in many cases is a conservative element in society which 
often prevents action that, considering the ignorance 
and prejudice of the multitude, would be too hasty, and 
in consequence, unwise. If our population had a higher 
level of intelligence and greater willingness to meet 



54 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

new conditions bj changes in habits and more ready 
adaptability in all the relations of life, social reforms 
could be produced much more readily and with much 
Jess danger of failure. Perhaps our schools can render 
no greater service than to give to our children, as far 
as possible, habits of thinking for themselves independ- 
ently, of working out new plans which still shall be 
reasonable, and the willingness to change from one habit 
to another when the advisability of such change seems 
clear. In too many cases now people are unwilling to 
consider even the advisability of a change. Our legis- 
lators are always anxious to take only very short steps 
in advance, because they say the people will not stand 
for anything radical and they must have the people's 
support and co-operation if a law is to succeed. 

It must also not be forgotten that one reason why so 
little has been done to encourage independent habits and 
personal initiative in our schools is because our teachers 
and school officials have themselves been dominated by 
custom until they have become old-fogyish and unpro- 
gressive. They, as well as others, need to realize that 
it takes public spirit, care for the welfare of others, as 
well as private good sense, to secure the energy to move 
in a new direction. And above all there is needed the 
impartial judgment which will enable one to see 
whether the change proposed is wise or foolish. 

SELFISHNESS A SOCIAL EVIL. 

The second great social evil referred to, selfishness, 
has the effect of building up in the community classes 
hostile each to the other, and of limiting very greatly 



THE SOCIAL BASIS OF EDUCATION. 55 

one's own usefulness. This dominating trait is, of 
course, the fundamental force back of all vices and 
crimes of self-indulgence- — greed, vanity, envy and pas- 
sion of all kinds. In all these the sinner seeks to gratify 
personal desires, even at the expense of others and of the 
public. Licentiousness, theft, forgery, political corrup- 
tion, fighting, arson, murder — all spring from this com- 
mon source. The only remedy — except personal affec- 
tion or religion — if a person is strongly inclined toward 
wrong in this way, is a self-control brought about by a 
clear-headed perception of the ultimate effects of such 
indulgence. 

It is easy to point out in our schools that the really 
great are those that, conquering their own selfish inclina- 
tions, render the great services to society. In the study 
of the lives of great men, in the consideration of public 
questions and of the forces lying back of great historical 
movements that have uplifted humanity we see that 
service to others is a power that pays the doer of the 
service. In this way we may eventually teach our chil- 
dren to see themselves somewhat with others' eyes, 
objectively, impartially, as others see them, and to real- 
ize that in the long run and in the higher sense, our 
real interests are at one with those of society. Selfish- 
ness is usually a very short-sighted self-interest ; altru- 
ism, a wise, far-seeing self-interest. There was never 
a truer piece of social philosophy than " He that find- 
eth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for 
My sake shall find it." The teacher who devotes him- 
self most unselfishly to the welfare of his pupils and 
bis school is the one who makes the greatest success 



56 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

of his work and wins for himself in the long run the 
highest standing. It is, of course, often true that, if 
the question is considered from the purely money point 
of view, the selfish man, even the criminal one may 
succeed; but from the broader social point of view, if 
one is really ambitious to gain the highest success, the 
truest self-interest is found in the widest and most use- 
ful service. Our pupils should be made to realize that 
their interests are really at one with those of society. 

Except that it changes the point of view and the 
method of thought, this doctrine in no way differs 
from that which, with emphasis still upon moral train- 
ing, urges teachers to develop to the fullest extent the 
individuality of their pupils. In the one case the pupil 
is taught to think from himself and his own capacities 
out ; in the other case, he thinks of the welfare of society 
without reference to himself. 

THE CURRICULUM AND METHODS OF TEACHING. 

We have next to note how the social point of view in 
the discussion of educational questions will affect the 
choice of our curriculum and our methods of teaching. 
We wish to arouse in our pupils social consciousness, 
the feeling that they are a part of one great whole, and 
that they have the responsibility resting upon them to 
play well their role in this great life drama. What sub- 
jects in our common school curriculum will best serve 
these purposes, and how can they best be taught in 
order to attain these ends? It is probable that the 
social point of view as here presented and the individual- 
istic point of view, which lays emphasis upon the de- 



THE SOCIAL BASIS OF EDUCATION. 57 

velopment of the individual pupil, will not reach results 
materially different as regards subject matter. The 
main differences will be in methods of work and in 
the degrees of emphasis laid upon different studies. 

CLASSIFICATION OF STUDIES AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE. 

In our school curriculum certain subjects are to be 
looked upon as tools placed in the pupil's hands to en- 
able him to do any kind of work effectively; whereas 
others are especially well adapted to arouse social con- 
sciousness and direct attention toward public service. 
Pupils must learn to read and write, whatever the end 
may be toward which they bend their energies. Cer- 
tainly some knowledge of mathematics is required in 
almost every walk in life, and language or languages 
and mathematics and logic are to be looked upon primar- 
ily as tools necessary to any activity. But even in these 
studies something can be done in the way of choice of 
subject and method of treatment, to emphasize the 
social point of view. Many of the illustrative examples 
in our arithmetics, for example, have little or no bear- 
ing upon our everyday life. What use do most of us 
make of the apothecary's table or of the binomial 
theorem, or of the extraction of the cube root, or of the 
problems of the differential calculus ? And yet in a 
study of history the pupil will get a much more vivid 
notion of the social conditions of the American colonies 
and will be much more likely to have his patriotic spirit 
aroused by the tales of the sacrifices of our forefathers, 
if he compares mathematically the numbers of the 
Revolutionary population and of the soldiers with the 



58 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

peoples and armies of to-day in some of the late great 
world struggles; if he calculates with some degree of 
accuracy the cost of supplying an army's needs in the 
days of Washington with the costs to-day ; if he figures 
out the distances required for the transportation of 
supplies with the time required for covering the needed 
distances; if he compares accurately the efficiency of 
the fire-arms used as regards range and accuracy then 
and now. 

Similar uses of mathematics in industrial life will 
prove no less significant. Dr. Charles McMurry, in 
one of his classes in geography, lately secured a vivid 
realization of the significance of the great water power 
at ISTiagara Falls by having the class visit a local mill 
whose machinery was driven by an engine of, say, fifty- 
horse power, having the students note the amount of 
work done, the number of people employed with the 
number of persons dependent upon them, the amount 
paid out in wages and similar matters, and then having 
them by means of a careful mathematical comparison 
estimate how many establishments, how many workmen, 
how much in wages, and so on, would be required in 
order to utilize in a similar manner the hundred thou- 
sand horse power developed in the works at Niagara ? 
We may readily see how each teacher could, in similar 
ways, in classes in history and geography and literature, 
make exercises in mathematics contribute to a much 
more vivid realization of the social significance of 
events and phenomena than they now do, and how much 
of the drudgery of the subject might thus be taken away, 
while all the benefits required for our social life might 



THE SOCIAL BASIS OF EDUCATION. 59 

be far better secured. I do not wish to ignore, of course, 
the further advantages of accuracy and promptness, 
that come from the study of mathematics, nor the ad- 
vantages in the vs^ay of mental drill from the care- 
ful reasoning required in geometry, nor the special 
benefits secured by such a study in the way of requir- 
ing students to state things logically and accurately, and 
of giving them a clear conception of the nature of proof 
— all these things are of great social importance ; but a 
careful adaptation of the subject to others in the curri- 
culum and its shaping to a social use, will give it also a 
much richer content. 

In the study of hygiene and physical training the 
pupil, by thoughtful suggestion and study of illustrative 
cases, may be made to realize that a long and healthy 
life has a significance to society as well as to the com- 
fort of the individual concerned. Perhaps most of us 
fail to realize that the chief period of productive activ- 
ity for society is found after one has advanced well 
along into the adult years, and that it is usually the 
case, provided a person's health remains unbroken and 
his mental powers stay tuned up to their full activity, 
that the best ten years of any man's life, from the point 
of view of service to society, are his last ten years. And 
this should always be the case. Note the lives of Lin- 
coln, Washington, Gladstone, Caesar ; study more closely 
those of the most influential men in the community, 
and see how rapidly influence gains with the passing 
years, provided only that health and activity remain. 
Had Gladstone died at fifty, Lincoln ten years earlier 
than he did, how great would have been the difference ! 



60 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

With this thought in mind the care of one's health and 
a knowledge of the principles of hygiene acquire a new 
significance. This thought, too, may well lead our 
children to remain longer in school and college. If their 
last ten years are to be much more serviceable than, say, 
those from twenty to thirty, or thirty to forty, it will 
be because they have especially fitted themselves for 
service. It is well to recall the fact that Aristotle — 
possibly the greatest thinker and greatest scientist of all 
time — went to college (in Plato's Academy) for twenty 
years ; that he did not begin writing till he had studied 
nearly ten years ; that he hardly worked independently 
till past forty, and that his most important productive 
work was done after he was past fifty. 

The very beneficial results that have been obtained in 
late years from the social point of view in the control of 
epidemics, the fact that in military campaigns the losses 
from disease are usually much greater than those from 
bullet wounds, all show how important is the study and 
how great its social significance. 

In speaking of mathematics, an intimation has been 
given of the social side of history. The subject, of 
course, is valuable from the point of view of mere infor- 
mation which it would be pleasant for the individual to 
have in his social intercourse. A good knowledge of 
historical facts enables one to understand many allusions 
in a way that may be useful. Primarily, however, his- 
tory should be studied with reference to social causes and 
results, in order that from the experience of the past we 
may learn to form social judgments to serve us in the 
present. The powerful influence of trustworthiness 



THE SOCIAL BASIS OF EDUCATION. 61 

in character and soundness of judgment is seen clearly 
in the success of Washington. Brilliancy of intellect 
would not have made his greatness. The Boston Tea- 
party was in itself a small incident. A careful study 
of the motives of the men engaged in it and of their 
personality is full of suggestion for a student of politics 
or even a political leader of to-day. The give and take 
of the debating factions in the Constitutional Con- 
vention of 1787 with the influences back of the leaders 
from the various states are reflected to-day in every 
Congress and ITational Convention. Owing to the un- 
certain nature of the premises in any social question 
where our reasoning must depend to a considerable ex- 
tent upon our knowledge of human motives — motives 
which are, of course, as variable and changing as are 
different people and different nations — we need much 
experience in studying such premises and in making 
social judgments. The study of history gives many op- 
portunities for gaining such experience. 

Of vital importance also is the judicial temperament, 
which endeavors to see both sides of every controverted 
question. This habit of impartiality is in part a matter 
of natural disposition, still more perhaps a matter of 
training. In possibly no other study of the school curri- 
culum is there a better opportunity of compelling stu- 
dents to see that there may be reason on both sides of a 
question and that it is never safe to impute bad motives. 
Children in our country will naturally be opposed to 
slavery; but they should consider why Washington and 
others of our Revolutionary heroes were slaveholders. 
It is, of course, natural and right for them to feel that 



62 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

our forefathers were oppressed and that the American 
Revolution was justifiable ; but they should be led to see 
that the English statesmen in attempting to conquer the 
colonies were likewise conscientious, and to see the rea- 
sons which led to their actions. So also, in the case of 
the Southern Confederacy, they should realize how 
natural was the contention of the southerners, how al- 
most unavoidable their line of argument from their 
economic conditions and their social training ; and at the 
same time they should see how clearly the events have 
shown the probable benefit of the war, even to the south- 
erners themselves. From a careful teaching of history 
the habit of forming impartial social judgments should 
be cultivated, and in this way perhaps the pupils can be 
led to feel their social responsibility as well as in any 
^ other way. 

The study of geography may be a tool, of course, for 
the use of the individual in enabling him to plan his 
railway journeys, to find the locations of markets, and 
so on. From the physiographical point of view, too, it 
may have interest and gratify curiosity ; but if the 
earth's surface is studied with continual reference to its 
adaptability to meet man's needs, the study becomes not 
merely a tool or a developer of mental habits, but it is 
of prime significance in tracing social and economic 
rucauses and results. Perhaps no study has a more di- 
\ rect effect in arousing social consciousness and in en- 
abling the pupils to see and feel the interdependence of 
the peoples of one clime upon those of another and the 
necessary interrelations of the different nations of the 
world. 



THE SOCIAL BASIS OF EDUCATION. 63 

I have already spoken of the number of people who 
serve us in bringing our morning cup of coffee ; but the 
study of any industrial process or social activity, as 
exemplified in good geography teaching or in carefully 
planned manual training, has always a logical drift 
in the same direction. The study of the various pro- 
cesses by which from mine and forest the raw materials 
become a desk; the analysis of the use of the water 
power at Niagara Falls to drive street railways and fac- 
tories and canal boats ; the reasons why the relative 
localities of Port Arthur, Vladivostock, and the Straits 
which give entrance to the Sea of Japan both gave rise 
to and ended the Russo-Japanese War — all tell the same 
story, that no man and no nation can live alone. 

Literature in the same way is a useful tool for the" 
individual in enabling him to secure social pleasure and 
profit for himself and others. Perhaps no other study 
of the school curriculum may be used more effectively 
to increase the powers of enjoyment of the individual 
by giving him literary taste and the means of gratify- 
ing it; but of still greater significance is the fact that 
from literature we may learn perhaps better than from 
any other study how best to understand human mo- 
tives and the way in which they work in society, what 
is the nature of our social duties and how best to per- 
form them in order to accomplish the best results. For 
literature is a picture in some form of society itself; 
and in many cases this picture is more vivid and more 
accurate as an analysis of society than the accounts 
which we can get from history, as history must be pre- 
pared for use in our common schools. 



64 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

One might in this way go through all of the studies 
of the school curriculum, showing how each has its use 
as a tool and how it can be made to contribute, through 
its economic and aesthetic qualities, to the study of so- 
ciety; and how every subject has these two sides, so that 
it lies within the power of the teacher to make it con- 
tribute toward the purpose which we have kept in 
view. 

The same results can in many cases be secured by 
special exercises. In some of our best schools the chil- 
dren have been formed into street cleaning brigades 
whose work in picking up papers scattered about the 
streets and in doing similar tasks has led them to ap- 
preciate the nature of the problems of a great city ; also 
from time to time in some instances cases of suffering 
in the community have been called to their attention, 
and they have been led to learn wise methods of char- 
itable relief for the unfortunate. The school organiza- 
tion has been used as a means of teaching local govern- 
ment. The study of the support of the school has served 
to begin the study of taxation, its methods, its defects, 
its benefits. 

In the higher schools, of course, the studies of civil 
government and political economy may be especially 
used for these purposes, provided they are skilfully 
taught. 

Much more than is often thought, the study of the 
business life about us, whether in connection with 
manual training or geography or history or literature, 
or whether made a special exercise, is one of the best 
fields for moral training and the inculcation of high 



THE SOCIAL BASIS OF EDUCATION. 65 

ideals of life. The ablest and most successful mer- 
chant in one of the best of the small cities of 'New York 
lately told a friend of mine how well it paid to practice 
honest and open dealing. " A reputation for fair buy- 
ing and selling is worth more to the business man than 
a stock of goods. The merchant who by sharp practice 
gets the name of trickster cannot have lasting success," 
he said; and his own life habit in business, with his 
success, proved him sincere and sound in judgment. 
It is well for people to see that honesty pays, even if 
that motive is not the highest. An excellent brand of 
any goods always sustained in quality brings properly 
a higher price than goods equally valuable intrinsically, 
but not known. Certainty in quality is worth paying 
for. This effort to sustain quality, too, gives the work- 
man a pride in his work ; and care and determination 
for excellence, the best possible, make the workman an 
artist. The difference between the stone-cutter and the 
sculptor is that the latter has his ideal figure to hew out ; 
the former cuts patterns. The ditch-digger whose work 
is absolutely accurate and fitted to its purpose, and who 
can plan his ditch to fit its purpose is an engineer. No 
better moral lesson can be given children than to let 
them study the work of the men in any trade whose 
ideal of excellence gives them a pride in their work, 
however humble it may be, which lifts that work from 
drudgery to art. This counts in the elevation of society. 

ADAPTATION OF CURRICULUM TO NEEDS. 

Something has been said of the educational value of 

the different studies, but the question of the most useful 
6 



66 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

social studies is in many cases one of an elective versus 
a fixed curriculum. 

Often now we drive our pupils out of our schools at 
an early age because we are not ready so to adapt our 
curriculum to local needs that the parents and pupils 
will feel that they are getting direct practical benefit 
from their studies. I have little question that in the 
not far distant future we shall go much further than we 
do now to find out what local needs are, and then we 
shall adapt our studies both as regards subject matter 
and methods of teaching so as to meet those local needs. 
This will, of course, involve not merely a greater flex- 
ibility in our curriculum in the lower schools, but it will 
involve also the establishment of more commercial and 
industrial high schools side by side with the schools 
especially adapted for instruction in languages, litera- 
ture and sciences. The needs of each pupil will be 
provided for in the way best fitted for his social duties 
in any station however low or however high which he 
may find it best to fill. It is worth careful notice also 
that, if the studies of the school curriculum are cor- 
related about this central purpose, each study will so 
aid in teaching the others that much time will be saved 
for more detailed work on the themes of most impor- 
tance. 

Beyond any question also the same principle of social 
benefit will be used in order to select our pupils in such 
a way as to produce the best social results. We hear 
very much regarding a general education for all our 
citizens, especially in a republic. One of the most ex- 
cellent characteristics of our American government has 



THE SOCIAL BASIS OF EDUCATION, 6Y 

been our readiness to devote money and time to the 
schooling of our future citizens. There can be no doubt, 
too, that in practically all cases where children are of 
sound mind, it is wise to give to them the rudiments of 
an education and thus to put into their hands the tools 
of language and elementary mathematics and some 
knowledge of the sciences. But shall we go further in 
this same direction without considering the special ap- 
titudes of individual students? Is it not best to let 
each student under careful advice see where he can 
probably be ultimately of best use to society, and then 
fit his education to his needs ? Society needs preach- 
ers, lawyers, teachers, managers of great business estab- 
lishments, etc. ; but society needs also horseshoers, mule 
drivers, ditch diggers, common sailors ; and very many 
people are by nature and by circumstances outside of 
the schools fitted rather for some of the latter occupa- 
tions than for the former. It is much better for society, 
as well as for the individual, that a man who has the 
gifts for that calling should be a good mule driver or an 
expert sailor before the mast rather than a poor doctor ; 
and there is no reason why the common factory hand 
with a taste for mechanics should not be so trained in 
our public schools that he may not merely do his work 
in the shop much better than he does it now, but may 
also perhaps be given a spirit of individual initiative 
which will lead him to improve the mechanical pro- 
cesses of his work as well as the general intellectual and 
social stimulus which- will encourage him to take a far 
more intelligent part in local government than most such 
men do now, and to become a much more useful citizen. 



68 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

I recall that some years ago I heard William H. Bald- 
win, Jr., in a most inspiring talk to college students, 
advise them : " See what you want to do for your 
own enjoyment in life; see where you can be of most 
use to society; then take up that line of work and 
develop yourself best in that direction." We shall guide 
our pupils ultimately to fit themselves for the greatest 
usefulness, and we shall make our curriculum so flexible 
that it can be adapted to individual needs. Besides 
that, the teaching of citizenship must permeate all the 
courses in all subjects. The only thing of real conse- 
quence in any study is the human relationships in that 
study. Are we studying geography, botany, history, 
literature ? What is a valley good for ? For the satis- 
faction of human needs, nothing else. Why has the 
violet perfume ? For what are the stars shining ? We 
do not know what purpose Divine Providence may have 
with reference to them ; but by the standard of our needs 
and those of society, the significance of violet and moun- 
tain and stars, and poet's song and the tale of heroes' 
deeds is their benefit to humanity, their joy -giving and 
uplifting power. 

SELECTION OF TEACHEES. 

This same point of view also in our school training 
will encourage us so to select our teachers as to produce 
the desired result. We shall have the teachers who will 
best fit pupils for their work in society. 

Primarily, our teachers need to be chosen on account 
of the force of their personality. It matters little how 
much teachers know unless their personality is such 



THE SOCIAL BASIS OF EDUCATION. 69 

that their pupils have respect for their judgment and 
are glad to carry out their wishes. And, again, if the 
teacher has the personality which gives him influence 
with his pupils, he will be able to make very much better 
use of the knowledge which he possesses, and to acquire 
more knowledge as his work progresses. 

Even the strongest teacher, however, if he is to do 
work along the lines just considered, must be familiar 
enough with business and with the social life of the com- 
munity in which he is teaching so that he, and others, 
will know that his work takes hold on life as it is. It 
is his purpose to connect his teaching with the daily 
life of his pupils and of the community. He must, 
therefore, show good sense and good judgment in con- 
nection with the business affairs of the community and 
with the social movements, of whatever nature, in which 
his pupils and their parents are interested. 

In many of our rural communities, the blacksmith is 
the center of the industrial life. It is he who repairs 
the machines of the farmer, and the tools of the car- 
penter, who shoes the horses of the producers of all kinds 
and, in various ways, makes life more comfortable and 
business more profitable. How can a teacher who has 
never been inside a blacksmith shop and who knows 
nothing of the work done there meet many of her pupils 
on common ground, until she sees enough of this work 
to know it as an important factor in the business life of 
the community? 

It is perhaps an unfortunate fact, but it is a fact, 
that to a considerable extent the comfort and harmony 
of a community is dependent upon the punctuality and 



70 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

faithfulness of a dressmaker or of a tailor. The signi- 
ficance of the work of these artisans (or possibly artists) 
is perhaps appreciated enough by most people; but the 
conditions under which they work, the difficulties which 
confront them, are known only to those who have taken 
some pains to investigate carefully. 

Some teachers who have grown up in communities 
similar to those in which they are teaching have ac- 
quired through their own experience much of this knowl- 
edge of industrial processes; but probably, in a great 
majority of cases, the teachers would decidedly 
strengthen their hold upon their pupils by looking some- 
what carefully into the business life of the community 
in which they teach. 

This common lack of business knowledge is empha- 
sized very strongly by the growing demand for a larger 
proportion of men as teachers in our schools. Speak- 
ing generally, it has been my experience that women 
are more faithful and better teachers than men; but 
I have no doubt that the proportion of women among 
our teachers is too large for the best interest of the 
schools, largely because they are, relatively speaking, 
deficient in certain important kinds of industrial ex- 
perience. In order to come most closely into touch 
with life, our children need contact with the business 
world as well as with the home. Beyond doubt they 
need the instruction and influence of women fully as 
much, probably more, than they need the influence of 
men; but they need both. In most communities the 
sexes are substantially equal in number; it is probably 
not far from the truth to say that they are equal in in- 



THE SOCIAL BASIS OF EDUCATION. 71 

fluence. Let their personal influence in the schools, 
then, be made substantially equal, in order that the 
training of the schools may conform more closely to the 
needs of social life. 

In the second place, in the selection of our teachers 
we should require ability to teach, skill in presenting 
the subject matter of instruction, so as to accomplish 
best the desired results. Some few teachers, thru 
their temperament, their sympathy with their pupils, 
and their habit of influencing those about them, seem^ 
to acquire almost instinctively the best methods of 
giving to their pupils knowledge and of leading them 
also to acquire good habits of thought and action. In 
the great majority of cases, however, skill in teaching 
must be a matter of careful and somewhat extensive 
training. The teachers must possess not merely knowl- 
edge of the special subjects they are to teach in the 
schools — arithmetic, geography, history, and the rest — 
but they must also see each of these subjects in its due 
relations to others and to the practical life of the com- 
munity for the service of which their pupils are being 
prepared. To give this special knowledge is one of the 
chief tasks imposed upon the normal schools and other 
institutions for the training of teachers. In addition, 
they must learn the best ways of controlling and direct- 
ing the thoughts and activities of the pupils in their 
charge, so as to enable them most readily and most thor- 
oughly to master the subjects presented and also to 
make those subjects of practical assistance in perform- 
ing the duties of life. 

In the lower grades of our public schools the proper 



72 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

co-ordination of the subjects taught and their connec- 
tions with social life are largely a matter of the em- 
phasis to be placed upon the different topics in each 
study, and this requires a most careful planning of the 
work from week to week, as well as the skill to adapt it 
to the needs of the community and to individual pupils. 
In the case of higher institutions, beginning with the 
high school this correlation is brought about largely by 
the selection of studies, and in the college and university 
.by the use of a properly regulated elective system. 
Each student, as he approaches the time when he is to 
take up independently his life work, brings himself 
thru his special studies into immediate contact with 
that work, and this fact the teacher needs to keep always 
in view. 

The methods of fitting pupils for social service differ 
naturally in schools of different grades and in different 
communities. The aim of the schools of all grades, 
however, is substantially the same. If this aim is kept 
prominently in mind it will be seen that not merely is 
the state justified in supporting schools, but that it has 
imposed upon it the duty of providing institutions of 
all classes and grades which can fit students of all tastes 
and degrees of advancement for the best service to its 
citizens. 

If a teacher is himself imbued with this social con- 
sciousness then there can be no question that the 
study of history, the study of literature, the study of 
any and of all the subjects of the schools will be taught 
from this standard. Whenever we are speaking of a 
valley in geography, we shall ask what is the special 



THE SOCIAL BASIS OF EDUCATION. 73 

significance of that valley ? Is it that the soil in that 
valley is productive, that more people can live there, 
that human needs can be better satisfied from the soil 
in the valleys than from that in the mountains ? And 
why has the mountain value ? Because the beauty of a 
mountain with the sunlight on its snow-crowned top and 
the mines with their treasures in its heart is something 
that will gratify human needs; — and the valley, the 
mountain and the sunlight have no value, no benefit for 
our purposes as teachers, except as they are related to 
the satisfaction of some human need. If our teachers 
will but keep always in mind the thought of social hap- 
piness and welfare and the needs of humanity, there 
will after all be very little trouble about finding means 
and methods by which we can teach good citizenship in 
the public schools. 



III. 

THE MAKING OF CITIZENS.* 

" The true test of civilization is, not the census, nor the size 
of cities, nor the crops, — no, but the kind of man the country 
turns out." — Emerson. 

There is, perhaps, no other subject that is of more 
constant, universal interest to men than politics; none 
that is more perennially fresh and interesting. And yet, 
singular as it may seem, there is probably no class of 
duties resting upon our citizens that is on the whole so 
thoughtlessly performed. People commonly assume 
that they know everything on that subject. They talk 
upon it, not to learn, but with the hope, vain hope, of 
convincing others; or, if they are of the same political 
party, of indulging in scornful remarks concerning their 
opponents. Even in the great educational campaigns, 
the political speakers who are to instruct the people, ap- 
peal rather to prejudice than to reason. It makes and 
holds votes better, and it is votes they are after. But 
these facts (and no thoughtful person will deny that they 
are facts) show that there is need in the intervals be- 
tween campaigns of coolly considering some of the fun- 
damental principles of government — this for ourselves ; 
and the threatening aspect of socialistic, or rather of 

* Address given in 1889, heretofore not published. 

75 



% CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

anarchistic movements, on the one hand, with the 
equally threatening aspect, in certain senses, of party 
strife on the other, make it imperative that our children 
also be carefully trained in a knowledge of the princi- 
ples of citizenship. 

It is evident that, in the discussion of such a subject 
as the one before us, in so far as it concerns our public 
schools at least, the question should not be limited to 
the training of voters, but should include men, women, 
children — all who owe allegiance to their country and 
who claim protection from the State. It would surely 
seem unnatural, when speaking with reference to our 
public schools, a large majority of whose pupils are 
girls, to leave them out; it is equally clear that they, 
no less than the boys, have a deep and abiding interest 
in the subject. If good society is the foundation of all 
good government — and no one questions this — woman 
surely has her full share in it, and she should receive 
special training as much as men. It might even be 
urged successfully that it is still more necessary for wo- 
men to receive this training ; for all grant that woman's 
influence in society is the greater. She is the queen in 
this realm, at least. Indeed, the strongest argument 
that I remember to have heard urged against woman 
suffrage is that thereby a woman would have but one 
vote, whereas now, through her influence, she often has 
several. I^ow men feel it their duty to care for the 
rights of women, to defend them ; then they would be 
expected to defend themselves. But granting that the 
need is the same in both sexes, training for citizenship 
means training to be patriots, lovers of our country. We 



THE MAKING OF CITIZENS. 77 

strive to stir this feeling in our school children by pro- 
viding flags for display on the anniversaries of import- 
ant events, by celebrating in appropriate ways im- 
portant days in history and in the lives of our nation's 
heroes ; and these provisions, if properly carried out, are 
excellent so far as they go: but after all, this spirit of 
pride in our country and love for its institutions is 
largely instinctive. This alone, especially for American 
children, is of lesser consequence. We need more than 
this. Patriotism means real, genuine devotion to our 
country's good. It may be well to feel that our country 
is the greatest in the world, that it soon will be the most 
populous, that it is the home of free and liberal institu- 
tions ; but if we stop here, we have done nothing, or al- 
most nothing, to prevent the decay and ruin of these in- 
stitutions. True patriots wish their country to be per- 
manent, wish that coming centuries may look back on 
a prosperous, continuous history; but neither wide 
reaches of territory, millions of population, nor a re- 
publican form of government, can make a nation per- 
manent, and its name illustrious. 

Nor, again, is mere permanency of governmental 
form the highest end to be attained. Men's lives are 
measured by deeds, not years. H'amilton, Lincoln, 
Keats, ISTapoleon, were, in years, not long-lived. How 
shall we judge a nation's life ? If we look back into the 
gray dawn of history, and seek for the nations whose in- 
fluence has been permanent, we do not look to China. 
Every man's thought turns promptly to the beautiful 
city by the Aegean, where an old bare-footed man walked 
the street and stopped the idle talkers to inquire, " What 



78 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

is justice ? "Wtat is beauty ? What is truth ? " We 
think of the groves of the Academy where Plato taught. 
We see virtuous wisdom personified in the Pallas 
Athene of Phidias, standing with outstretched hand be- 
fore the world's most wonderful temple, declaring to 
her own, and to all succeeding ages, that Wisdom and 
Virtue must be crowned heads of the State. \ China 
made a constitution and a religion that with unchanging 
form have outlasted centuries ; Greece made men whose 
thoughts will kindle the intellect, touch the sensibili- 
ties, and ennoble the souls of generations yet unborn, 
so long as goodness, beauty, and truth live here on 
earth. Which nation had the higher destiny ? Toward 
which should we strive ? True love of country means 
then, not mere pride in country, but determination to 
lift our country to its noblest height ; and this need of 
elevating our present institutions makes still clearer 
the need of training for citizenship ; for the growth of 
states, must be through a bettering citizenship, and such 
an improvement, though it may be steady, is but slow. 
Patriotic lovers of the race have alternated between 
hope and despair since civilization beg.an. When Greece 
appeared in history, and under Pericles seemed almost 
to reach the ideal of refinement and beauty, it seemed 
that the dawn had come ; but the world soon sank again 
into barbarism. When, early in the fourth century, 
Constantine, after his conversion, removed from the 
early Christians the danger of persecution, and made 
Christianity no longer a crime and a disgrace but an 
honor, men thought that Christ was soon to bring the 
whole world to his blessed peace; but the Dark Ages 



THE MAKING OF CITIZENS. 79 

followed. In the time of the Reformation, too, church 
and state were soon to be purified ; but the cruelty of the 
Thirty Years War, the oppression of Protestants, proved 
that hope was still to look forward for ages before the 
wished for transformation. And later, Rousseau's 
thought of the " natural man " from which grew the 
doctrine of liberty, equality, fraternity, the thought 
that the common man was King, and that the people 
should rule, which kindled the Erench Revolution, 
seemed to some to have solved the problem of political 
excellence ; and from that day to this many have believed 
that the rule of the people means prosperity and happi- 
ness. But now, in our day, the tide again is rolling 
back; the pessimists are mourning over the ignorance, 
the corruption, the vices of the people, and while some 
long for anarchy, others, and those the majority, wish 
for the strong hand of the law, if not justice, to quell the 
danger of anarchy. Nevertheless, hope is the proper 
state of mind; the progress throughout the ages has 
been marked, and the progress will continue. But our 
progress must be slow; there is no royal road to the 
highest civilization, to the best state. This must come 
through the careful, patient training of the individual. 
In training for citizenship, then, our first, and if 
this is well learned it need be our only lesson, is the 
teaching of proper ideals. The ideals of our people 
must be changed, if our State is to realize its highest 
destiny. "What are our ideals now ? Look at the men 
about us. Let us look at ourselves. What do we con- 
sider success ? So long as there is no flagrant immor- 
ality, do we not measure men's success in the main by 



80 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

their wealth ? Is not our constant aim ^^ getting on in 
the world ? " The advantages of wealth are, of course, 
not to be underestimated. Wealth is a necessary pre- 
liminary to many of the highest advantages of culture. 
But what proportion of our money-makers have a clearly 
defined end beyond the money getting! Even teachers 
and preachers estimate the excellence of their positions 
by their salaries. Salaries are good, are a necessary ac- 
companiment; but this should not be the sole test. In 
every country we need producers of wealth, but we must 
have scholars, thinkers, philosophers, as well. Socrates, 
the most nearly ideal man of antiquity, was poor. He 
walked the streets of Athens bare-headed and clothed 
in plain garments. Socrates never " got on in the 
world," but he lives to-day more triily than any other 
man of his age. So, too, even Christ's life from this 
standpoint seemed a failure. He did not make money ; 
he never " got on ; " but to-day his power is increasing 
in the world as never before. The ideals of Athens 
were well set forth by Pericles in his oration in the 
Iveramicus over the dead who had fallen at Marathon: 
" We aim at a life beautiful without extravagance, con- 
templative without unmanliness. Wealth is in our eyes 
a thing not for ostentation but for reasonable use ; and 
it is not the acknowledgment of poverty that we think 
disgraceful, but the want of endeavor to avoid it." 
Some American orator might set up this ideal ; none 
would be bold enough to claim, as did Pericles for his 
people, that we have attained it. If we are to have our 
ideal state, the principles of Socrates and of Christ must 
be taught and must be lived. It must be taught, not 



THE MAKING OF CITIZENS. 81 

as a mere sentiment, but as a practical fact, that he 
that loseth his life for high and worthy ends shall 
surely find it ; (that no investment is so sure as an in- 
vestment in brains, in character. / We can have no state 
that will live; no state that will really benefit ages to 
come, until we have one that will make men. I do 
not mean to imply that our country has not made any 
good men and great men ; but it is surely true that the 
tendency is strongly against their production, and that 
the great mass of our citizens to-day have not their 
eyes turned toward the highest. Our first lesson, then, 
needs to be given not merely to our children, but to our- 
selves as well. As the mainspring of action is senti- 
ment, feeling, we must in every way kindle in minds 
about us and in our own minds the ideals of excellence 
for individuals and for the State that will help us lift 
ourselves and society with us into the clearer light of 
culture, refinement and truth. When this is done the 
training for citizenship is complete. When any fair 
proportion of our citizens have the higher ideals of the 
State, and of its function as the promoter of the noble 
and the true, fixed in their hearts, the knowledge of 
means will come. 

But it may still be well to consider somewhat specifi- 
cally how these ideals can be made practical, how these 
things can be taught. The love of the practical in our 
American character is not a sign of degeneracy ; but we 
need first to consider what it is that we think practical. 
Are the ideal and the practical at odds ? 

Many of our so-called practical men sneer at mere 

sentiment, mere ideals, and very properly; but they 
6 



82 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

mistake when they assume, as they often do, that the 
love of the ideal, of the perfect, is not practical, or that 
scientists and thinkers, even artists, are not practical 
men, and that, too, if we include painters, sculptors, 
teachers, and preachers in the list. Most of us when 
boys talked with our boyish friends a block away by 
means of a telephone made of string and tin cans cov- 
ered with a membrane. This same principle, carried 
toward the ideal, nearly to perfection, has in our modern 
telephone revolutionized the world of trade. The pipe 
organ is the willow whistle idealized, and the men who 
have worked out these ideals, whether they have gained 
wealth or not, are practical men. These inventions are 
all based on principles learned by scientists, the obscure 
thinkers, in the laboratory. Surely the painter of the 
Sistine Madonna, whose idealized mother with the 
Christ Child, has won grateful words from thousands 
and hundreds of thousands who, almost with tears 
trembling on their eye-lashes, have drunk in its spirit of 
purity, sweetness, and love, — surely Raphael was a 
practical man, as much so as the baker who feeds us; 
and is it not shortsightedness to say of these practical 
men, who minister to our soul's needs, that they are not 
as valuable citizens, that they are not even more valu- 
able citizens, than those who minister to the body alone ? 
Both are needed, but the baker will come everywhere; 
no danger that we shall not call for him. The artist, 
the poet, men whose influence is yet more far reaching, 
men whose lives will give permanence and glory to the 
state, these men too are needed ; but they will not come 
unless called. 



THE MAKING OF CITIZENS, 83 

If, then, we enter our schoolrooms and our families 
and ask how we shall train our children for citizenship, 
with this idea of true citizenship before us, with this 
idea of the practical, the task becomes an easy one ; we 
find material everywhere. If, for example, in reading 
and studying literature, in the reading of Shakespeare, 
we ask the cause of Macbeth's downfall, he himself an- 
swers : " 'Tis vaulting ambition which o'erleaps itself, 
and falls on the other side." Then the question at once 
comes to mind, is there a similar tendency in public life 
to-day ? Will similar results follow ? If so, why ? 
Daniel Webster had a like experience in his dallying 
with the slavery question. Why not study politics in 
Shakespeare ? Csesar, Richard III, Othello, Hamlet, 
Henry IV, all, and more, have lessons of politics, of 
citizenship, that the teacher thinking upon that subject 
can not fail to see ; but, after all, the lessons here^ as in 
all history where long periods of time are taken into 
account, are all the same, told with tireless reiteration. 
All comes back to the one fundamental principle. The 
right shall triumph in the end; the wrong shall fail. 
Geography and statistics are sometimes called the eyes 
of history. This is the soul of history. Some call 
it the Providence of God in history, and say that states- 
men cannot leave God out as a factor in public affairs. 
It is another way of stating the principle of human prog- 
ress. I^ot that the good escape death or poverty, not 
that the bad fail to secure wealth and position ; but when 
history and poets tell the story, when the few short 
decades of men's life melt into the centuries of history, 
poverty, wealth,^ position-— even death itself are but little^ 



84 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

things. What woman who has felt the sacredness of a 
daughter's love would not rather be Cordelia, dead in 
her father's arms, faithful to the end, than to have se- 
cured life by any shift of conscience ? Desdemona, 
Othello, Hamlet, were fortunate in their deaths; for 
they were true and consistent in their lives. So too, in 
our history, Lincoln fell by the assassin's hand; but 
what was death to Lincoln ? His truth, his faith, his 
wisdom, have immortalized him. Death but opened the 
portal for his fame. 

H So everywhere in history, if we but read with the 
ideal of the truest patriotism, the highest citizenship, 
ever before our eyes, the pages of facts light up with 
meaning and with lessons for our everyday life as citi- 
zens. We cannot train citizens to any noticeable extent 
by telling mere facts. For example, is it important to 
know exactly the date of the battle of Quebec ? Is it 
even of much consequence in the long run to know the 
stories of the valiant generals who so nobly died on the 
plains of Abraham? It is inspiring to feel the spirit 
of the dying Montcalm for whom death had no terrors 
in defeat ; still more elevating if possible, with the glad 
dying words of Wolfe to join his eulogy of the poet 
Gray, showing how the noblest thought and purest 
melody had reached the heart of the warrior. But 
what lessons of citizenship have we here ? One great 
one — 'Tis sweet to die for one's country. But when, 
also, to these facts we add the far sighted views of Pitt, 
England's great prime minister, who had foreseen that 
England's victory in America meant English civiliza- 
tion throughout the western world, and when we ask 



THE MAKING OF CITIZENS. 85 

ourselves and our pupils why it was better that Wolfe 
should have conquered, and that English civilization, 
with its germ of self-government should succeed instead 
of French rule, with its hierarchy of Church and State, 
we reach principles of citizenship and statesmanship. 
Was it merely Wolfe that conquered Montcalm ? Had 
Montcalm conquered Wolfe the result might have been 
delayed, but ultimately it would have been the same. 
The words of Burke and Fox but a few years later show 
that the spirit of liberty was stirring in England as well 
as in her colonies ; and when freedom, love of home and 
native land, fight against personal rule, love of adven- 
ture, and thirst for wealth ; when general intelligence 
and liberty fight against ignorance and bigotry and 
tyranny the result is not doubtful, no matter what the 
odds may be. The knowledge of this historic principle, 
enforced by the example of the battle of Quebec, is worth 
more as training for citizenship than all the mere fact 
history of the schools. But one word more on this point. 
For most of us, older as well as younger, the charm of 
history and the value of history, too, as a means of train- 
ing, lies in men. We need to recognize, our children 
need to know that the great men of history have been 
great only as they have been right. Some great men 
doubtless have been bad ; some bad men, possibly, have 
been great, but their greatness lies not in their evil 
deeds, but in their good ones. Csesar was not great be- 
cause he was the boldest speculator of his day, willing 
to run a million dollars in debt with the only hope of 
payment success in securing office ; nor because he could 
order the cold-blooded murder of hundreds of thousands 



36 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

of innocent women and children, although these facts 
show his qualities of character. Our histories wisely 
gloss these facts. He is great in history because, with 
wise forethought, he opened whole territories, all west- 
ern Europe, to the influence of the most highly civilized 
nation on earth; because he showed the wisest, most 
far-reaching desire for the good of the people under him 
of any man of his age. He was successful ultimately 
only in plans that were far-reaching for good, and he 
failed and fell ignominiously in his over-reaching for 
personal power. So Alexander, Cromwell, Richelieu, 
Charles V., l^apoleon, Bismarck, Gladstone live in his- 
tory as great men only for the good they have accom- 
plished. Some of them were bad, and did evil deeds, 
and for these, too, they received their reward. Witness 
Alexander's pitiable death, and Napoleon's lonely exile. 
The good they did lives after them ; the evil is blotted 
from the pages of history, or when retained lives only to 
their shame, like the ill-used talents of Themistocles, not 
to add to their greatness. How strongly the life of 
Washington enforces this truth. The more closely we 
look into his life, the better we know him, the more 
surely we see that the key to his success was his sterling 
uprightness of character. Men trusted him ; they knew 
that he would not deceive. Others were in many respects 
his superiors; in this respect his only equal in our his- 
tory has been Lincoln, the only man whose name men 
will consent to have written beside his, the man whom 
Lowell so happily and truly calls " wise, steadfast in the 
strength of God and true ; a kindly, earnest, brave, far- 
seeing man; sagacious, patient; new birth of our new 



THE MAKING OF CITIZENS. 87 

soil, the first American." If we and our children will 
dwell upon these upright, God-fearing characters until 
we imbibe some of their spirit, as we shall do if we see 
that upon their personal characters depended their suc- 
cess, we shall not be poorly trained for citizenship. 

So might we go through the school curriculum and 
through the experiences of our lives. Everywhere 
something will be found that leads onward in this right 
direction. Some studies point the lessons directly; 
others, as mathematics, the natural sciences, manufac- 
turing, and trade, only indirectly, as they teach keen- 
ness of insight, precision of thought, independence of 
judgment, love of truth and right, honesty and in- 
dividuality, and as they elevate the ideals of students, 
leading them to a position of independent judgment and 
high aim from which they can and are willing to take 
the trouble to decide fairly, according to their knowl- 
edge, the complex questions of politics. 

And this, let us insist, is the main thing. Our citi- 
zens do not fail so much in knowledge, as in their will- 
ingness to do their political duties. So many of our 
voters never even attempt to learn their duty. They vote 
as their fathers did, as their employer does, as their best 
friend does, as the best people in the community do, very 
many as it is, in their opinion, for their OAvn private 
pecuniary interest to vote, and far too many as tliey are 
paid to vote. This corruption, and perhaps even more 
this indifference, is what constitutes our real danger. 
How can our school training directly meet this ? We 
teach civil government, to be sure, — we call it civics in 
some places — but so far, in spite of the great improve- 



88 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

ment in the last few years, the time has been largely 
spent in learning the forms of government, the number 
and classes of officers, and the names of the leading office 
holders. This is well, but it does not make good citi- 
zens. There is little danger that one will be permitted 
to forget election day, or that on election day one will 
be allowed to forget the offices, or that later in life one 
will not know the duties of officers ; but the main things 
to-day that most nearly affect the voter he must learn 
in the schools, or he will have little chance to learn them 
later. The politicians will do all in their power to 
prevent his learning them. He should learn the prin- 
ciples on which party government is based, the circum- 
stances under which it becomes one's duty to desert his 
party, how far the right of instructions to representa- 
tives should be exercised and followed — all those mat- 
ters that in political life call upon a man at times to 
assert his manhood, to stand alone against a multitude 
of sneering partisans. He should know that no devo- 
tion to selfish interests, to his party, or to his party lead- 
ers, much as he may admire them and justly as he may 
praise them, can excuse him from thinking for himself 
and from doing his duty as he sees it. Emerson well 
says : " The one thing in the world of value is the 

active soul Is it not the chief disgrace in the 

world not to be an unit, not to be reckoned one char- 
acter, not to yield that peculiar fruit which each man 
was created to bear, but to be reckoned in the gross, in 
the hundred or the thousand, of the party, the section 
to which one belongs, and our opinion predicted geo- 
graphically, as the north or the south ! " 



THE MAKING OF CITIZENS. 89 

I am saying nothing against parties. I believe in 
party and devotion to party, but a man must retain his 
manhood, he must help do his party's thinking, and not 
let his party think for him. When Lincoln, contrary 
to the advice of his party leaders, thrust upon Douglas 
the question of the right of a territory to exclude slav- 
ery, he was none the less a partisan, but he was the 
more of a man and a better patriot. It is these mat- 
ters of a citizen's rights, and of a citizen's duties that 
we must teach our people, far more than the mere 
forms, the skeleton of government. We must teach 
them the spirit of our institutions, the spirit of liberty. 
Neither must we forget that the spirit of independence, 
by which we demand the right and assume the duty of 
thinking for ourselves, of determining without the con- 
sent of party leaders what our opinions and votes will 
be, grants to all other men the same right. The spirit 
of intolerance regarding political opponents that is so 
common in the minds of many of our untrained voters, 
and on the lips of our campaign orators — though they, 
unless personal opponents, let it go little farther — is sub- 
versive of the fundamental principles of popular govern- 
ment. A government by the people means that each 
voter should think for himself ; and why should any one 
be blamed for exercising this right ? As well blame and 
denounce lawyers for taking opposite sides of a case. 
What would popular government be without parties ? 

So, too, in the lesser affairs of political life we need 
to teach the necessity of personal honor. It is become a 
common saying that in no state in the Union can per- 
sonal taxes be collected, because so large a portion of 



90 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

our citizens are willing to conceal their property, and 
cheat their neighbors, for the saving of a few dollars4 
It may be that our tax laws are unjust. In many 
states they are ; but we surely ought to show our stu- 
dents, and as citizens we ought to realize, that for a 
man to conceal his taxable property is to take money 
from his more honest neighbor. A fixed amount of 
money must be raised by taxation. If one man pays 
less than his share, his neighbor must pay more. Our 
duty is not to protect ourselves directly against unjust 
laws at the expense of our neighbors, but to suffer with 
our neighbors until we can secure the repeal of the 
unjust laws. 

We are too little sensitive regarding these matters 
that really, if carefully considered, concern our per- 
sonal honor. We argue that the law is unjust and op- 
pressive, but shut our eyes to the fact that, if we violate 
it, we become unjust, and practically plunder our more 
honest neighbor. And we forget, as has been implied, 
that it takes energy and personal interest and sacrifice 
of time and often of temper so to influence legislation 
that bad laws will be repealed. Several states have tried 
to revise their unjust tax laws at various times ; com- 
missions have been appointed that have made wise re- 
ports ; but the apathy of most of the legislators has been 
outdone by the prejudice of a few, and the laws still 
remain. If but for one year, the whole body of our 
citizens would honestly pay their personal taxes, be 
sure the wealthy men who suffered from the literal ex- 
ecution of the bad laws would secure their immediate 



THE MAKING OF CITIZENS. gjg 

repeal. As it is, many of them prefer to pay mucB- 
less than their just share. 

In the common affairs of local politics our children 
should be taught to think of the imperfections of our 
laws, and of the need for revision, and the way to revise 
and improve them. When children in the country see 
the men who are presumably working for the town in 
making roads, idling their time away in the fence 
corners telling stories and neglecting their duty, it is 
well to ask them why such cheating of the government 
is permitted. Is the fault in the men or in the laws; 
and if in the laws, how can they be amended ? No 
better practice can be given our children in the way of 
training them for good citizens, than by asking them to 
find out the defects in existing customs and laws, and 
to suggest a remedy. They may not get a good one; 
it is well for them to think about it. A still better 
practice in the majority of cases is to have them see if 
the fault does not lie in the non-enforcement of good 
laws, and if so, to enquire among themselves where the 
blame lies. Is it in the citizens, or in the officers ? If 
in the citizens, why do they not do their duties ? If 
the officers are to blame, who is responsible ? What 
brought these men into power ? Any practice and every 
practice that will make our students alive to the im- 
portance of seeing the practice of politics, the reasons 
for our shortcomings in political affairs, is the best of 
training for citizenship. 

We think too often of good citizens as connected with 
voting and making laws, and not enough of the relations 
existing between the different citizens. To be a good 



92 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

citizen in the full sense of the word, a man must be 
a good neighbor. A man whom, for his meanness, his 
neighbors hate, is not a good citizen. A man who in a 
country town, from laziness or stinginess, allows in 
winter his sidewalks to remain blocked with snow, is 
not a good citizen. A man who does not fairly and 
freely meet the calls upon his pocket-book for purposes 
of common benefit in the community, is not a good citi- 
zen. How often come the calls upon us for public pur- 
poses: celebrations, parks, libraries. A good citizen 
should be ready to give in proportion to his ability for all 
such things that will be of real benefit to the community. 
Americans are known the world over for their lavish 
expenditures, for the carelessness with which they run 
into debt, and for the readiness with which they take 
the risk of pauperism. Our countrymen do not lack 
energy ; many of them do lack thrift. We need to culti- 
vate the spirit of saving and we can do much in our 
schools to encourage this spirit in our citizens. In many 
countries in Europe, for twenty years in Belgium and a 
shorter time in Italy, Great Britain, Austria, and 
France, school savings banks have been started, to 
encourage this habit in children. Some slight move- 
ment in that direction has been made in our own 
country, a movement which it is to be hoped will be con- 
tinued. The plan of organization is simple. Each 
child is allowed to deposit with his teacher sums from 
one cent upward, receives a receipt for having de- 
posited the amount, and the school, as a school, opens 
an account at a savings bank. As soon as any pupil 
has deposited a fixed sum, say $5.00 or $1.00 he is given 



THE MAKING OF CITIZENS. 93 

a personal account at the bank, and encouraged to in- 
crease his savings there, his pennies being received at 
the school. The child receives no interest till he be- 
comes an independent depositor at the bank ; the interest 
drawn by the scholars as a whole being used to pay 
for the stationery, and if a surplus remains it is given 
in rewards. The savings of a few children of thrifty 
parents encourage in others the desire for an account 
in the savings bank ; the parents become interested, and 
add to the spare pennies of the children their own small 
savings ; until the little bank started in the school-room 
leavens the whole community, and thousands of dollars 
are often deposited as the result of the small school 
savings bank. It would be difE'cult, of course, to estab- 
lish such an institution in many country places ; but 
in any city where a savings bank is near at hand, and 
in many country places, if the parents would agree to 
deposit with a trustworthy person, institutions of this 
kind might be safely and very profitably started. 

The elements of the best citizenship consist in having 
a proper spirit toward our fellow citizens, and nothing 
can so foster this spirit as a willingness to sympathize 
with him in joys, and to help him in times of misfortune 
and sorrow. Comparatively little has been done in the 
schools of our country to encourage in children the 
thought that they are their brothers' keepers ; that they 
are responsible for the sufferings of others in the com- 
munity ; and that it is not merely their duty, but also 
one of their highest privileges, to minister to those in 
need. It has been with the greatest interest and with a 
realizing sense of the helpfulness of the movement in our 



94 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

social problems, that I have learned of the work in this 
direction that has been done in some few places. When 
eager boys, with axes and shovels, go to bank up a poor 
woman's house, and protect her and her children from 
the cold, the benefit received by them is far greater than 
any they can give. When in case of accident that brings 
destitution to some family, the school children are en- 
couraged to feel that it is their business to help relieve it, 
much has been done. When this spirit of care for their 
fellow citizens runs throughout the whole school, and 
throughout the whole community, the benefit derived 
therefrom is incalculable. ISTothing can take the place 
of such work. 

It is well to consider finally how we can carry these 
measures and others on to success. Many of us find 
that we cannot do so well as we know ; that our children 
are not responsive to suggestions made by us ; that we 
can teach the facts and principles, but that we cannot 
arouse the feelings, the desires to improve. This is too 
true, but the fault lies most often with ourselves. We 
forget the fact that the teacher and pupil must meet on 
common ground, that there is no education, no training, 
except that which comes from personal influence, from 
the touch of soul with soul. I have been more and 
more, of late, led to judge of the spirit, of the desire for 
learning, of the love of higher culture on the part of the 
teacher by the number of his pupils who, after leaving 
his school, enter higher institutions of learning. The 
test, I believe, is a fair one. If a man has in himself 
the true hunger for learning, the desire to find out more 
and more of the secrets of nature, of the mind and of the 



THE MAKING OF CITIZENS. 95 

heart, this spirit cannot be kept within himself. It 
will be communicated to his pupils, and the result will 
be seen in their after life. We, as teachers, need the 
true interest in scholarship that is not a transient 
curiosity, but an abiding longing for truth, an appetite 
that grows by wdiat it feeds upon. So in this matter of 
training for citizenship. We cannot make good citizens 
of our pupils until we are ourselves good citizens. We 
cannot be subservient to party dictation and expect our 
pupils to think independently. I know how at times 
our teachers' places seem to depend upon subservience to 
party politicians ; but we need manhood more than place. 
We cannot expect our pupils to be saving or to be chari- 
table unless we take the lead, and show them the way to 
become saving and charitable ; and we cannot give them 
the highest ideals of the state, we cannot expect them to 
go ahead and do all that citizens should to lift our 
State to its proper level, unless we ourselves have these 
highest ideals, and strive earnestly to reach them ; but 
we shall succeed whenever we ourselves are filled with 
the spirit of the older patriots, whose desire was to build 
a state for the good of man and for the spread of cul- 
ture, wisdom, and righteousness in the world. 



IV. 

THE RELATION OF THE SCHOOLS TO 
BUSINESS.* 

" These arts open great gates of a future, promising to make 
the world plastic and to lift human life out of its beggary to 
a godlike ease and power." — Emerson. 

It is perhaps natural that we Americans who spend 
so much money on our public schools, and who have so 
much pride in them, should feel that they, if rightly 
managed, are in themselves sufficient to cure our social 
ills. Beyond question our schools have done much to 
put our country into the first rank politically and in- 
dustrially. Beyond question, too, our schools may be 
greatly improved, and can in due time be made to render 
still greater services to the public. But it seems equally 
true that some of our social evils are of a nature that 
our schools cannot effect. All thoughtful persons will 
recognize that, inasmuch as many of the ills of society 
come from the continual shifting of conditions under 
which our people live, our public schools can never 
hope to meet at the instant even the demands that 
may properly be made upon them. They cannot change 
their methods to meet new demands until after the social 

♦Address before the Merchants' Club, Chicago, Feb. 9, 1901; 
before the Liberal Club, Buffalo, March 1, 1901. 
T 97 



98 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

changes, whicli make these demands, have first become 
understood. Before undertaking, therefore, to suggest 
what more our present schools can do to meet present 
needs, it will be best to analyze briefly the social ills 
which afflict us, in order to see whether they are of a 
nature which can be affected by our school training, and 
how far we must look to other agencies for their cure. 

It is a wise plan not to attack all social evils at once, 
but through analysis and division to attack them one by 
one in order thus more easily to reach practical results. 

The special evils which we are to consider are indus- 
trial, those particularly which are connected with the 
" laboring class," although of course we all recognize 
that in this country, while the condition of manual 
laborers may be less fortunate, their labors are no more 
severe than those of practically every other class in the 
community. The labors differ in kind, but the break- 
downs from overwork are as frequent among those that 
are ordinarily classed elsewhere. 

CAUSES OF THE WORKMEN's FAILURES. 

The failures of our working men to fit themselves at 
all times into the most useful positions in our industrial 
society are due partly to ignorance or faults or weak- 
nesses of theirs, partly to industrial conditions for which 
none of them are in any way responsible. The schools 
can perhaps do some few things to aid directly in over- 
coming the first class of difficulties. Their aid in the 
second class, which has to do with panics, new inven- 
tions, new forms of industrial organization, wars and 
the rumors of wars, can be only indirect and remote. 



THE RELATION OF THE SCHOOLS TO BUSINESS. 99 

The lack of efficiency of the workman may be spoken 
of most conveniently perhaps under four heads: first, 
his lack of knowledge; second, the unfitness of his 
knowledge for his special task ; third, his lack of what I 
may perhaps venture to call industrial character ; fourth, 
his failure to recognize his social obligations. In this 
last point especially all classes of society alike come 
short. 

IGNOKANCE. 

Unpleasant as the thought may be, we must all recog- 
nize the unquestioned fact that throughout all stages of 
the world's civilization, the vast majority of men have 
been merely the hewers of wood and the drawers of 
water, engaged mainly in the simplest forms of unskilled 
labor, and a very large proportion of them, as it has 
seemed, unfit for anything else. Many of the world's 
great thinkers from Plato and Aristotle to present day 
writers on industrial questions have been ready to as- 
sume that this state of affairs, which has always existed, 
must continue. The Greeks justified slavery on this 
ground, that the unfit were natural slaves and that they 
must work to secure for the thinkers, the philosophers, 
the leisure needed to work out plans for the advancement 
of society. Beyond question for a long time to come a 
very large proportion of our working people will be en- 
gaged in unskilled manual labor, but no one who is 
awake to the vast industrial changes of the last century 
can fail to see that even this unskilled labor has largely 
changed its character ; that very many things which were 
formerly done by the brute power of the naked hand 



100 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

are to-day done by the power of steam or electricity, and 
we may well look forward to the further emancipation of 
the unskilled laborer by the enslavement of the forces 
of nature. Again, no employer of labor fails to recog- 
nize the fact that among untrained laborers, when com- 
pared man with man, one is often doubly as efficient as 
another. Lord Brassey, the great English contractor, 
who built railways in practically every quarter of the 
globe, has asserted that three English navvies, whose sole 
work was shovelling and wheeling dirt, were equal to 
five Frenchmen or to seven East Indians. Was the 
difference muscular, or a difference in skill requiring 
greater knowledge on the part of some, or a difference in 
character showing greater willingness and zeal on the 
part of the efficient ? Every employer of unskilled labor 
notes similar differences among his workmen. What 
can our public schools do to remove the inefficient from 
this class ? 

MISPLACED KNOWLEDGE. 

A very large proportion of our industrial ills as well 
as other social evils come from maladjustment of our 
social relations. Most of our social reformers have, 
in my judgment, laid undue emphasis upon the faults 
of individuals. While these faults cannot be ignored, 
it must still be recognized that a very large proportion, 
possibly even the largest proportion of our social ills, are 
not to be ascribed to the faults or weaknesses of indi- 
viduals, but rather to misfits for which no one is to 
blame. 

Allusion is often made to the ill fortune that befell 



THE RELATION OF THE SCHOOLS TO BUSINESS. IQl 

the English weavers when the power loom drove the 
hand worker from his cottage to the factory or deprived 
him entirely of employment. In our own coimtry in 
the great crisis of 1837, many a farmer and w^orkman, 
through no fault of his own, lost his all in the failure of 
some trusted banker and had his wages taken away by 
payment in bank-notes soon to become worthless, while 
even in the time of our Civil War the depreciation of 
our currency caused wide-spread panic which ruined 
many, to be followed later by a rise in the value of 
money which doubled debts and stripped farmers of 
their lands through mortgage foreclosures. Such suf- 
ferers are not themselves at fault ; what is needed is 
some device to adjust quickly and economically the in- 
dustrial machinery that has been thrown for the time 
being out of gear by new inventions or business changes 
from whatever cause. Such evils are always with us 
and must always be with us so long as economic society 
is to improve. The travelling salesmen, the printers of 
advertisements, all classes of workmen in poorly situated 
mills who have been thrown out of employment during 
the last five years by the new industrial combinations, 
have suffered not so much from lack of skill as from the 
fact that they were victims, through no fault of their 
own, of the progressive spirit, united, to be sure, at 
times in individual instances, with the ruthless spirit of 
the present industrial age. 

Our interstate commerce law is a comparatively new 
thing. It was demanded by modem conditions and was 
not adaptable to the conditions that preceded it. Many 
of the decisions of our courts that reach back to Queen 



102 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

Elizabeth's time for some of their precedents, can be 
fitted to present cases only by the abounding imagina- 
tion of our gifted judges ; and that, alas, too often fails. 
So it is that the law will always be somewhat behind the 
times, and will never be quite suited to industrial condi- 
tions. 

The same thing is true regarding our religion. How 
many persons are there who believe as their fathers and 
mothers did ? How many in middle life stay by the old 
beliefs ? The man has gone forward, or the church has 
gone beyond him while he has stayed behind. His be- 
liefs are a misfit and he is made unhappy, his parents 
and friends are made unhappy, because he cannot be- 
lieve as he did before, or because they have abandoned 
their childhood's faith. 

So in social life everywhere. Many a person who has 
come an eager, popular young man from the country 
into the city, goes back after ten years to find himself 
out of place. He is uncomfortable in his old surround- 
ings, and makes everybody else uncomfortable that he 
comes in contact with. He is not to blame, but the 
conditions are changing; his principles and habits and 
ways of thinking are misfits and are out of date ; — per- 
haps I had better say, to tickle the feelings of the city 
men, ahead of date. 

Legal institutions, political institutions, religious in- 
stitutions, all are subject to the same implacable law of 
progress under which not only workmen but employers, 
legislators, every individual with a conscience, unless 
he can rapidly adjust his step to the swift march of 
progress, must suffer. Can our schools do anything be- 



THE RELATION OF THE SCHOOLS TO BUSINESS. 103 

sides giving mere special knowledge, to give also this 
swift adaptability to new conditions which will enable 
all of our industrial classes to avoid in part the evils 
inevitably associated with progress, and to give to all 
a tolerance that will remove much of the social curse? 
It is perhaps worth while to note that some of these 
evils, grave as they are to-day, are still, relatively speak- 
ing, far less than they were at the beginning of the 19th 
century. A skilled workman of fifty years ago was a 
man who understood the entire process of making a boot 
or shoe, or he was an iron and steel worker of such train- 
ing that he could do everything from shoeing a horse or 
ironing a wagon, to tempering a carving knife or mend- 
ing a lady's bracelet. The skilled workman of to-day, in 
many cases, can run one machine which makes a twen- 
tieth part of a boot or which hammers out the calks of 
a horseshoe, or which polishes a needle. His training 
has made him less adaptable than was the skilled work- 
man of fifty years ago to be sure, but on the other hand, 
the skill of the early workman was the result of a train- 
ing of years. A new trade of the modern type can often 
be learned in a week. 

CHAKACTER. 

Bad as is this industrial inertia this difficulty in 
changing our calling at will, that puts us at odds with 
our environment, a more important evil is one of char- 
acter. Possibly the gravest weakness among workmen, 
certainly the fault that is most annoying to the em- 
ployer, is one which seems to be merely a lack of fore- 
sight or thoughtfulness or faithfulness, as one is pleased 



104 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

to consider it. Many workmen are careless of their 
tools or are wasteful of their material, or apparently 
have a fear that they may earn rather more than the 
wages agreed upon. One often remarks the eager 
promptness with which work stops at the noon whistle, — 
the pick left hanging in the air, as the wit puts it — as 
compared with the slower motion with which work be- 
gins after the luncheon hour. One notes at times the 
scrupulous care with which a workman stops short of 
exceeding the task assigned, and the pressure even that 
is brought to bear by many workmen upon their fellows, 
whose normal gait or motion is quick enough to increase 
materially the amount of their product. 

I recall very well a friend of mine telling me about 
a cousin that came into the business as a boy to take the 
lowest place. He called him into the office and said : 
" John, to-day you are my cousin ; to-morrow you will 
be a workman. I am only one of the partners here. I 
cannot show you any favors. I cannot recommend 
you for promotion. I shall do nothing for you, but be- 
fore you go to work I want to give you some advice. 
Don't be afraid to earn more than your wages. Do all 
you can to benefit the firm and trust to the future to 
give you your reward." The result of that advice was 
that the boy was in a very few years in a prominent 
position in the business, by all odds the most successful 
boy of all. He had caught the right spirit. 

But, on the other side, there is perhaps no less to 
criticise. Not merely the workingmen are afraid they 
will do too much, the employers frequently are afraid 
that they will be overreached by the workingmen and 



THE RELATION OF THE SCHOOLS TO BUSINESS. 105 

will give too much ; they, too, are often not ready to give 
quite as much as they get in return. 

]^ow, on both sides, this reaching out for more than 
they ought to have, this unwillingness to do more than 
the task put upon them is a fault of character ; and in 
my judgment it is one of the most serious faults of our 
industrial life. The workman, on the one hand, who 
completely overcomes this fault, who is ready for the 
time being to render more than is due from him, thus 
showing his spirit of willingness and generosity, is the 
one whose wages rise, who is promptly promoted, who 
soon becomes an employer himself. The employer, 
again, who shows like generosity combined, to be sure, 
with rigid care and exactness in watching delinquents is 
the one who secures the best of the workmen, and in the 
long run secures the most willing service, a result which 
comes equally to his financial advantage. But these de- 
fects are all important in industrial society, and ought 
to be overcome. What can our public schools do to 
remedy this evil ? 

SOCIAL OBLIGATIONS. 

The fourth mistake, or fault, is this: Speaking gen- 
erally, we all fail to recognize our social obligations. 
Business men fail to realize their relations to one an- 
other and their relations to society. A butcher in busi- 
ness sells meat to his neighbors ; he wants his profit ; in 
nine cases out of ten, although of course he knows it, he 
does not realize the fact that he is also rendering a 
great service to society, and that if he fails to keep his 
shop clean, or to sell meat that is healthful, he is doing 



106 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

a grave injury to society. He is in business for money 
making. He ought to realize also that he is in business 
to render service to society; he ought to undertake his 
business for that purpose. So also with reference to 
men in any other line of work. A merchant, a manu- 
facturer, a business man of any kind, cannot cut him- 
self loose from his social obligations, ^ine men out of 
ten think they do so. They are in business for the sake 
of their profits. This is natural, but at the same time 
they will render much better service, and probably with- 
out lessening their profits if they will keep the social 
obligation also in mind. 

We ought, all of us, to recognize much more than we 
do the complexity of our industrial life, and how closely 
we are bound one to another. Think, for example, of 
the food that we have, the clothes that we wear, every 
object that we use, — how many people have contributed 
their service in order that we might have these bits of 
enjoyment, these items of service. Many of these 
things have come from across the sea. Workingmen 
have been toiling on the other side, and mechanics, ship- 
builders, sailors, by the hundreds, by the thousands, have 
been at work in order that some little thing might be 
brought here to us. There is not a day passes, but 
that if we analyze to the bottom the production of any of 
the goods that we use, we shall find that thousands of 
men have been working for each one of us ; and, if we 
have paid our debts in the honest way in which we 
ought, we shall have rendered a return service and we 
shall thus have served in our turn thousands of men. 
"Now, this social solidarity, this relationship of one man 



THE RELATION OF THE SCHOOLS TO BUSINESS. 107 

in the community to another, the inter-action and inter- 
relation of all business enterprises, is not sufficiently 
recognized by the workingmen, or by business men ; but 
it ought to be so recognized, and it must be, before we 
can have comforts in society as general as they might 
be. 

These are the faults that I wished to speak of, which 
we find continually. Can our public schools do any- 
thing regarding them so that social conditions will be 
improved ? What do our public schools do now to pre- 
pare workingmen better for life ? 

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL. 

Speaking generally, it is probably no exaggeration to 
say that our schools give to the average workingman 
(and that expression means probably nine out of ten of 
all our people) no skill in handling tools that is of any 
service, very little new power of judging form or dis- 
tance or color that is of practical use, though much more 
is done now than twenty years ago. 

A certain amount of useful information of a general 
nature, such as ability to read, to add, to divide, is given 
the child, together with much useless information along 
the same line regarding obsolete forms of bank discount, 
complicated methods of reckoning partial payments and 
so on, which he will never use. To one who is to be a 
clerk or a salesman this information is of some slight 
service. On the other hand, to these and all persons a 
little knowledge of elementary geography and of history, 
possibly of drawing, is useful. What is perhaps most 
useful of all in very many cases, even though the pupils 



108 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

leave the schools before they have reached the grammar 
grades, is a fairly satisfactory use of the English lan- 
guage which will enable those who are ambitious or those 
who have the opportunity thereafter to associate with 
well educated people to pass for persons with much bet- 
ter education than they in fact have. This knowledge of 
English is, to be sure, very scanty, and in many cases 
it is not given ; but in spite of the many faults of our 
school systems, it is surprising that so much is done to 
enable even our poorest children, coming from homes 
where everything is against them in this regard, to speak 
and even to write with a reasonable degree of accuracy 
the English tongue. I am not overlooking the just 
criticisms of our professors who inveigh against our 
teaching of English. Doubtless humorous illustrations 
of " English as she is spoke " are plentiful, but still it 
is probable that the greatest service rendered by our 
schools is in making readers. They give some useful 
knowledge. 

Take the second point : Do our public schools do any- 
thing to protect people from the effects of the misfit 
knowledge of which I have spoken ? People need adapt- 
ability. If a man loses one job he wants to be ready 
enough and prompt enough and with knowledge enough 
to turn his attention in another direction. This adapt- 
ability, too, must be not merely a matter of technical 
knowledge, it must be a matter also of willingness, be- 
cause very many of our workingmen, when out of work, 
fail to take another job, because they are too proud to do 
so, thinking it beneath them to change their calling. I 
recall a wagon-maker, thrown out of his trade some years 



THE RELATION OF THE SCHOOLS TO BUSLXESS. 109 

ago for the whole winter. There were plenty of oppor- 
tunities for him to make a dollar or a dollar and a half, 
sometimes even two dollars a day by shoveling snow or 
doing other unskilled work, but he was utterly unwill- 
ing to do anything of that kind ; he would make wagons, 
he would do nothing else; and, in consequence, his 
daughter supported him during the winter, in good part. 
!N^ow, our public schools can do something more, in my 
judgment, to take away from the great mass of people 
that spirit of unwillingness to do anything except in one 
specific trade. 

Third, do our schools develop character and a sense of 
responsibility ? They do something along that most im- 
portant line. Our public schools are, on the whole, 
better than any other force in the community in train- 
ing character, — better than the churches ; they have a 
better opportunity — better in most cases than the homes. 
They do far more than any other influence to teach the 
children punctuality and neatness and the accomplish- 
ment of any certain task placed upon them. 

Those things our schools do ; and we must not under- 
rate the importance of the service. But there is still a 
failure. These habits are, so to speak, imposed upon 
the children from the outside. The children are on 
time at school because they are afraid to be late. Punc- 
tuality is not and does not become spontaneous. In 
order that a man may be skilled in business, he must not 
only do what he is told, but he must seek and see his 
tasks of himself, willingly. He must be spontaneous. 
Our schools are not doing much to develop that power. 

So with reference to the fourth point, the feeling of 



110 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

social responsibility. Speaking generally, are we not 
taught in our schools that the individual pupil is to be 
developed for his own sake ? In most of our teachers' 
gatherings that is certainly the thought that I see 
brought forward most often. " Teach this ; teach it in 
this way ; do this thing in the schools, in order that the 
individual may be developed ;" and the other side of the 
matter, that he should be developed for the sake of 
society, on account of the relationship that he has with 
others, is very frequently ignored. In our schools 
generally we find that our teachers have not themselves 
this consciousness of social inter-action, social solidarity 
that they ought to have and that they ought to put into 
their pupils' minds and hearts. Some little is done; 
much more might be done. 

In all these particulars the good work now done by the 
public schools is strictly limited by the fact that so large 
a proportion of the pupils leave the schools before they 
reach the grammar grades, before their habits of work 
are well formed, and before knowledge or skill can to 
any material extent be given, or habits of character be 
firmly fixed. Little or nothing is done to give the 
flexibility of disposition, the ready adaptability of mind 
and body to new conditions and new tasks which are 
becoming more and more needed under modem indus- 
trial conditions. 

THE TASKS FOK THE SCHOOL. 

The problems for the school to solve seem then to be 
these: First, how can our schools be made more at- 
tractive to pupils so that they will be willing to submit 



THE RELATION OF THE SCHOOLS TO BUSINESS, m 

themselves longer to their good influences, and how can 
thej be made to appear to the parents to be more useful 
so that they will compel their children to remain some 
years longer ? Second, how can the work be so changed 
as to give (a) greater skill to our workingmen, and more 
knowledge that will be useful in business life, (b) 
greater adaptability to changing circumstances, (c) 
faithfulness to duty with the power of spontaneous 
self-direction which will make them both faithful to 
tasks that are put upon them and ready to rely more 
upon themselves in meeting the problems of life which 
are given them to solve, (d) the realization of social 
responsibility ? 

In addition to our compulsory education laws, in 
order to make the schools more attractive both to the 
children and the parents, we must make them in seeming 
and in reality take hold on life. Character and service 
are, to be sure, the highest things in life. The develop- 
ment of a noble character is the greatest need for each 
individual, and to give it, the greatest service that any 
school can render. But we must not overlook the fact 
that, speaking generally, it is not the development of 
high character that very many parents feel the need of 
in their children ; it is rather the development of the 
money-making power. Neither, again, do the children 
feel that their characters need development. They wish 
to be interested. 

Let us begin with facts and take note of actual condi- 
tions. All of us, of course, as time passes, gradually 
work toward our ideals. In order to hold the children 
in our schools, we must recognize what the ideals of 



112 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

the school children and of the parents really are. Where 
these ideals are not the highest, we must endeavor to im- 
prove them ; but our first practical task is to learn those 
ideals, so that we can hold the children. The problem is 
quite like that of the newspaper editor who has for his 
purpose something higher and nobler than mere money 
making. He wishes to influence public opinion in favor 
of that which is best for the state, but public opinion 
cannot be influenced by his paper unless some one will 
read it. It is useless to have a paper fashioned to an 
ideal, however noble it may be, provided the paper is so 
dull that people will not subscribe. It must, therefore, 
be made attractive as well as wise. 

The parents naturally want prompt results from the 
schools. A man who is working every day, all day 
long, in order that he may get enough to eat for himself 
and family, and then possibly goes hungry part of the 
time, is likely to be thinking of something else than 
character development. He is thinking of dinner. I 
recall very well a dear old lady friend of mine who 
worked all day long and half the night caring for her 
household, caring for her children, doing her duty as she 
saw it from day to day, and I have heard her say, time 
after time, " Oh, I'll be so glad when I get to Heaven, 
because then I think I can have a rest." The ideal that 
she had before her was rest ; rest was the greatest happi- 
ness that she could have in Heaven. Now, when a per- 
son is feeling that way, he is not likely to look very much 
higher than ordinary physical comforts. And so I 
should say, speaking generally, that the parents of most 
of the children in our public schools are not looking 



THE RELATION OF THE SCHOOLS TO BUSINESS. 113 

primarily for the development of noble characters in 
their children, though, of course, they want that too. 
What they want insistently is the development of honest 
money-earning power. If they can get that, they will 
be satisfied with our public schools, and if they can feel 
that our public schools are giving that, they will let 
their children stay ; otherwise not. The children them- 
selves have, to a very great extent, as we all know, the 
same feeling ; it comes from the same source. If then 
we speak of the problem of doing something more to 
develop money-earning power in order to hold the chil- 
dren in the schools so as to develop them in the best way 
intellectually, we must attack that problem directly. 

MANUAL TRAINING. 

It seems probable that the training which will, on 
the whole, give the knowledge that will be best appreci- 
ated by those who are called the working men, is that 
which will fit their children most rapidly for their ap- 
parent or their probable needs as skilled laborers; i. e. 
some form of manual training, or, in its simplest form, 
the " constructive work," as it has been called, directed, 
as far as possible, so as to fit for the child's life work. 
Speaking generally too, this form of work interests 
children. They like the concrete ; they like to do things. 
Many children who show little interest in arithmetic or 
reading for its own sake, are delighted to make things 
which may either serve as toys, or which at any rate 
serve to keep them busy in the way that interests them. 

The parents are much more ready to recognize the 
value of this kind of training when the child shows 
8 



114 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

himself able to use some of the knowledge gained at 
school. If a boy can repair his mother's lock, he does 
something practical that tells. If a girl learning to 
cook can suggest some meal at home that costs less and 
tastes better than the ordinary meal, her parents will 
appreciate that dinner, and they will want her to stay 
to learn something more. Any one who has had ex- 
perience in these lines knows that those results do fol- 
low, and they also enable both parent and child to take 
a look ahead to money-earning capacity in the future. 

To secure the best results in awakening this interest 
of course requires greater skill on the part of the teacher, 
a point which is to be considered later; but how great 
the need is of this training in the larger part of the 
homes whence come the poorer children, cannot be ques- 
tioned. The cost of living in the poorest way is often as 
great as that of living much better, if a little trained 
knowledge can be put at the service of the home. 

Some years since I happened to learn accidentally of a 
colored barber with a wife and two children, who, on his 
wages of from ten to twelve dollars a week, had never 
known what it was to have $50 ahead. His attention 
was called to the fact that a teacher in the same town, 
with a salary of about $150 a month, with a family of 
the same size, was spending for his table much less 
than was spent by the barber. Some careful question^ 
ing on the part of the barber as to methods of buying 
provisions and preparing them, led, as he afterwards 
expressed it, to the saving of " dollars and dollars a 
week," while he lived better than ever before. Every 
person who has lived among the people with the least 



THE RELATION OF THE SCHOOLS TO BUSINESS. 115 

income knows that not merely is their poverty their 
curse, inasmuch as it compels them to buy in too small 
quantities, but perhaps to an even greater degree is their 
ignorance and their thriftlessness their curse. A teacher 
who is willing to put into the work of the cooking classes 
also some careful information regarding buying and 
preparing, and who can tactfully also see to it that the 
instruction is made real, so that it takes hold of the chil- 
dren under her charge, can make both parents and 
children feel that such training may well be carried on 
for a considerable time. 

For purposes of thorough training which shall be 
applicable to all the different children who are likely 
to come into the school and which can serve also as a 
basis for scientific and literary training as well, and 
which still further will give the adaptability of mind and 
skill which has been spoken of as one of the greatest of 
our social needs, probably the plan followed in the 
newer training schools is, on the whole, for the present, 
wisest, though any course must be adapted to local needs 
by taking subjects which connect most directly with local 
social and business conditions. It is certainly logically 
and pedagogically sound to take for example the textile 
industry and carry it through its various stages of de- 
velopment. Into the children's hands are placed some 
of the raw materials like wool or the bolls of cotton. 
They are led to examine the fibers, and are asked to 
find out for themselves the way these fibers can be made 
into strings of yarn ; next, they invent the simplest 
forms of spinning, and then from that are sho"v^Ti the 
more modern devices and machines for spinning thread 



116 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

and jams of different sizes. From the examination of a 
piece of cloth they learn the way in which the yarn is 
woven into cloth or knitted into garments. They them- 
selves under guidance invent the simplest form of loom, 
and from that they are led to see the improvements made 
in the looms of the higher type from the earlier days to 
the present. Thus, step by step, they trace the whole 
history of the development of that industry from the 
days of savagery to those of the highest civilization. 
They have themselves worked through the whole history 
of the race, and in that way have acquired an idea of 
what civilization means as compared with barbarism 
such as perhaps could have been learned in no other way. 
So, too, besides the acquirement of manual skill, the idea 
of development and progress in society, and the funda- 
mental conceptions in anthropology which they uncon- 
sciously have acquired, they have learned likewise to see 
the geographical connection that exists between the prod- 
ucts in their different stages of development. They 
trace the product from country to country, acquiring 
thus some insight into commercial processes in the 
manipulation of the products themselves ; they learn 
some of the simplest elements of physics, and in other 
allied lines of work the simplest elements of chemistry 
may also well be taught. They have been led through 
not merely the ideas of the history of the race, but they 
have themselves lived through a good part of the life of 
the race. 

Better than this, such study gives the consciousness 
of industrial solidarity showing the interdependence of 
the classes of society one upon another, which, after all. 



THE HELATION of the schools to business. 117 

is the most appropriate and possibly the most important 
lesson that any of them can learn. I have often said 
that the best lesson taught in the shops connected with 
our great technical schools is that a man may wear 
greasy overalls and have a smutty face and grimy hands 
and still be a gentleman. If a boy has himself worked 
for a time in these conditions, he judges others more 
accurately ever after. 

Such training fits also readily into reading and lan- 
guage work. I found in the case of my own small boy, 
that, before it was possible to get him interested in Rob- 
inson Crusoe or fairy stories or Tales from Ancient 
Greece, he was lying awake nights to spell out almost 
word by word, with the aid of the pictures, the American 
Boys' Handy Booh, which taught him how to make boats 
and kites. Such work is admirably adapted also for 
written description and discussion; and foreign lan- 
guages when read for their ideas regarding a subject in 
which one is especially interested are studied with new 
zest. 

TRADE SCHOOLS. 

This kind of training must be carefully distinguished 
from the work of trade schools. These, in most cases 
in connection with the public school system, will prob- 
ably not be found practicable. In the first place, they 
will almost certainly meet with the active opposition 
of the trade unions and an attempt to introduce them, 
instead of securing the interest and approval of many of 
the parents and of the children, will awaken instead 
their active hostility. Trade unionists complain, and 



118 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

often doubtless with much justice, that the result of a 
trade school training is that employers take young boys 
directly from the trade schools at boys' wages to sup- 
plant trained working men upon whom families are 
dependent. Something of course may be said in defense 
of this, but much more can probably be said against the 
plan. 

The trade school, if carried out in the narrow way 
which its name would seem to indicate, will give to the 
boy the ability to do some one especial thing, which 
would readily enough perhaps enable him to take the 
place of an older and more skilled workman. On the 
other hand, it would fail to give him the general deft- 
ness of manipulation and variety of knowledge which 
would render him able to adapt himself not merely to 
one trade, but, if necessary, to any one of half a dozen 
trades in case he were to be forced out of a position by 
the vicissitudes of trade and manufacture. 

Our great polytechnic schools, which are suited for 
training superintendents of factories of various kinds 
do not aim to teach specific trades, but instead they give 
the fundamental principles that underlie all, together 
with the rudiments of working in wood, in iron, in steel, 
in the foundry and the machine shop, so that one thus 
trained, when entering directly into practical manu- 
facturing work, can learn in a year the work of a factory 
or a machine shop better than one without such prelimi- 
nary training could learn it in ten years. The scientific 
basis which is necessary for all of the most skillful 
work cannot be learned in the machine shop itself. It 
should be learned beforehand. In the same way in our 



THE RELATION OF THE SCHOOLS TO BUSINESS. 119 

manual training, it is probably not desirable to teach 
specific trades, but to teach rather the fundamental 
principles underlying them all with sufficient practice in 
manipulation so that one can later turn comparatively 
readily from one of our modern trades, which requires 
but comparatively short training, to another. 

In connection with the kind of manual training 
school of which I have spoken, comes in also the basis 
of a commercial training. If a boy studies the various 
products mentioned, he acquires a knowledge of goods 
of various kinds from food products and textiles to iron 
and machines, which will enable him to master the de- 
tails of any business so that he can much the more 
readily become a salesman who understands his work. 
Likewise, there will come with this a knowledge of geog- 
raphy so essential to commercial life ; the principles of 
exchange would normally be taught before this work in 
the training school had advanced very far ; and through- 
out the whole course from the bottom to the top, habits 
of order, of neatness, the necessity of accounting for the 
material put into his hands, the keeping of a regu- 
lar account with his teacher for everything given him 
and everything returned, would enable him to catch 
the commercial instinct in such a way that he could 
much more readily enter into the spirit of a mercantile 
business man if he decided to turn his attention in that 
direction. I am not speaking here, of course, of the 
special commercial high school, which I believe also 
should be provided for in any complete public school 
system of a large city, but rather of the elementary work 
which can well be started in preparation for such a high 



120 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

school in some of the lower grades in connection with 
the work in manual training. This will necessitate, of 
course, the use of some commercial museum, which need 
not necessarily in itself be large, but which can furnish 
a number and variety of materials sufficient to give the 
basis for the kind of work that I have suggested. 

Some years ago in visiting the Commercial Museum 
in Philadelphia, I was shown a series of exhibits con- 
sisting of a number of the more common kinds of com- 
mercial and industrial products which had been put up 
in boxes to be distributed to the various schools of differ- 
ent grades in the city, in order that the children might 
become familiar with these most common products and 
might make use of them in connection with their work 
in geography and history. 

If our schools are to be conducted with particular 
reference to making them take hold on life, the only 
difference in the process suggested from the present one 
would be that we should reverse the usual order, and 
starting with the materials and with their connection 
with our everyday life, we should go out from them to 
the studies of geography, history, mathematics and ac- 
counting. Now we take our studies first ; we get our 
practical connection with our materials after our school 
days are over. 

After all, as intimated before, knowledge, or even 
adaptability and skill are not the chief thing that is 
needed. Above all the chief want in our working men, 
as well as the chief want in our society everywhere, is 
the proper spirit. The willingness to adapt one's self 
to new conditions, the readiness to overcome the mental 



THE RELATION OF THE SCHOOLS TO BUSINESS. 121 

and even the moral inertia under which so many of us 
remain permanently stagnant in life, is what should be 
developed, together with the feeling that we are all parts 
of a great social whole in which each must render service 
to his fellows. 

I find that the students whom I recommend to busi- 
ness positions or to teachers' positions with the greatest 
freedom and lack of reserve are those students who have 
been compelled to earn their way through the Uni- 
versity. They have taken hold on life. In many cases 
they have no better brains, are not better students than 
are the others; but, generally speaking, they have been 
compelled to put their pride under their feet, to wait 
on their fellow students at table, to take care of fur- 
naces, to mow lawns, to do other drudgery before the 
eyes of their fellow students and teachers, and have thus 
shown their readiness to do the best that they can. They 
have manifested a spirit of independence and self-re- 
spect that shows their determination to stand by them- 
selves, if need be, for their own opinions, to carry out 
their own purposes and to do every duty under all 
circumstances. The refusal of laboring men to adapt 
themselves to new conditions from fear of the opinion 
of their fellow working men, or from a foolish pride 
which hinders them from stooping to tasks that require 
less skill than does their owm trade may perhaps be 
justified at times. There is not a little force in the 
argument that one may become permanently classified 
with the less skilled laborers ; but nevertheless it is 
usually true that this argument does not hold, and that 
the spirit of willingness to make the best of a situation, 



122 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

coupled with the spirit of thrift, would much sooner 
put them into a position of independence and of influ- 
ence among their fellow-working men and elsewhere 
than would any other influence. This spirit of inde- 
pendence and willingness to do one's duty however un- 
pleasant that may be, is something that also is perhaps 
more likely to be worked out through our schools that 
are attempting by manual training to take direct hold on 
life than through those that are more formal in their 
training. 

It is not necessary, in order to develop the powers of 
our pupils best, to give them any specific line of train- 
ing. We can develop intellectual qualities and moral 
qualities just as well in a technical school as we can in 
a Latin school. We should make our schools take hold 
on life as it is. We do have to make our living. We 
have all of us various desires to satisfy, but first we must 
satisfy our desire to eat. If we do not, we shall soon not 
be in a condition to have any further desires in this 
world. We should not make getting a living the final 
purpose of our lives by any means, but that is one prom- 
inent thing that should be brought forward. 

Again, how shall we lead the different classes in so- 
ciety to live in unison and harmony and to work together, 
unless we train all of our citizens so that they will recog- 
nize their social relations ? We speak frequently of the 
strife that exists between the different classes in society. 
How shall we get rid of it ? Is it not by putting the chil- 
dren together into the schools, and letting them realize 
there what the different conditions in life are, and what 
interdependence there is between the different classes in 
society, until they can meet one another on an even 



THE RELATION OF THE SCHOOLS TO BUSINESS. 123 

plane ? A man is not better because he is rich, but 
neither is he any better because he is poor, as a great 
many people seem to think. A person's goodness or 
badness depends upon what he does, upon his ideals, 
upon the use that he makes of the powers that God has 
given him, and not upon his social status. 

In speaking of manual training and of commercial 
training, I trust that I have not been thought to over- 
look the fact that some at any rate of our children in 
the schools need another line of training. They are to 
devote themselves hereafter to professional work, to 
literature, to law, to teaching, to languages. One must 
be careful not to overlook them, but at the present time 
the need is probably chiefly for training along technical 
lines. In my own judgment, the best work in literature 
and in history can well be fitted in to the manual cur- 
riculum of which I have already spoken. As one gets 
toward the higher grades of work, foreign languages 
should of course begin for those who are likely to finish 
their high school course or to go on later into college life. 
But the kind of training would be different. One would 
be taught primarily to speak and write with reference 
to business, not to literary culture. The beginning of 
foreign language work for those who wished it would be 
naturally too in French or Spanish or German. As our 
markets expand into foreign countries, there is becoming 
continually felt a much greater need for salesmen and 
agents in foreign countries who can speak there the lan- 
guage of the natives. Probably the chief advantage 
which Germany has had over England and the United 
States in her foreign trade of the last few years, has 



124 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

come from the fact that through her commercial schools, 
often merely of elementary grade, although many of 
them of course are likewise commercial high schools 
connected with commercial museums, have been trained 
men who could carry goods into foreign countries and 
in the language of that country explain their advantages 
to prospective purchasers. 

ADAPTATION TO THE PRESENT CUKEICTTLTJM. 

The directly practical question for our schools is 
Where is the time to undertake this work ? The curri- 
culum is crowded now. The changes must be made 
gradually, but we may indicate the way. So far as prac- 
tical work is concerned, we do much useless work now. 
In our work in arithmetic, for example, our children 
spend much time in learning tables that are rarely used 
thereafter, and that whenever they would be needed later 
in life could be picked up by any average man in a very 
few minutes when he saw the practical need of it. How 
many of us can tell now offhand the number of yards in 
a perch or the scruples in a dram ? How would it bene- 
fit us if we could ? Many of our school problems are 
those that were customary fifty years ago and are solved 
in the same way ; but such means are no longer employed 
by our bankers or business men. The retention of such 
processes is often defended on the ground that the 
mental training is good. Doubtless this is true, but the 
other training that takes its closer hold on life is no 
less valuable and is certainly much more attractive. 
Our business men have found methods now that are 



THE RELATION OF THE SCHOOLS TO BUSINESS. 125 

much briefer than those employed fifty years a^o. The 
specific training that comes from one business act done 
by the new method is perhaps not so great as that from a 
like act under earlier conditions ; but where the business 
man did one job then he does twenty now, and the ac- 
cumulated force of the twenty acts is doubtless greater 
than that of the one. A friend of mine in New York 
was found one day in his office with long distance tele- 
phones connected with Washington and Chicago selling 
a steamship by telephone. It was not the old way, but 
it was effective. We should seek for the practical 
methods. As a teacher I may be justified in saying that 
the fact that these older forms are so generally retained 
is probably due chiefly to the mental inertia of the 
teachers and the writers of text-books. Originality is 
rare in this world ; it is much easier to get one or two 
or a few new ideas, take an old book and adapt it with 
these new ideas, than to attempt to see just how much 
can be thrown away and how much that is directly prac- 
tical can be put in. 

CHARACTEK. 

In all this work, of course, there would be exactness, 
promptness in attendance required, as is the case in all 
our schools now. Best of all there would be a better 
opportunity in a training school for the exercise of that 
most important of all business characteristics, judgment 
and impartiality, — the habit of seeing things as they are 
and in their uses, whether they are immediately in favor 
of the doer or against him. The business man should see 
things as his chief competitor sees them; the lawyer 



126 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

needs to see his opponent's side as well as his own. This 
habit of impartiality, like the habit of honesty and of 
willingness to adapt one's self to conditions is, after all, 
something that is much more likely to be caught uncon- 
sciously and indirectly from the teacher than in any 
other way. This is the fact with all character training. 
If we stop to think of the effect upon ourselves that has 
been made by our teachers in schools, in college, or, if 
not limiting ourselves to the schools, we go outside and 
ask what the influences are that have shaped our mental 
habits most, we shall find that the chief influence has 
been some other person. The truest education, after all, 
is, in my judgment, the influence of a riper, a nobler, a 
higher, a better nature upon one weaker or less mature. 
We must then look after our teachers, and if our teachers 
themselves are persons that have the spirit of faithful- 
ness and impartiality of which I have spoken, our chil- 
dren will get it. We are to be congratulated upon tho 
fact that, speaking generally, our teachers do have the 
spirit of faithfulness and of devotion to their work, 
and at times impartiality ; but if they had it to a greater 
degree, which means if we were to get people of a higher 
type for our teachers than we have now, we should have 
a stronger influence upon our children than we have 
now. Do not our children of the public schools — those 
of you who have children can judge whether I am right 
or not — do not they at times come home and, instead 
of feeling that their teachers are higher and better and 
nobler than they are — people whom they would be glad 
to imitate — do they not rather make fun of them, 
thinking that one is small and tricky and that another is 



THE RELATION OF THE SCHOOLS TO BUSINESS. 127 

trying to make them do something because she wants to 
escape some labor ? 

If I were speaking to teachers I should go more into 
detail with reference to the personal characteristics of 
teachers. But I am speaking to the people who pay the 
teachers. And that brings the matter up from another 
point of view : why is it that we do not have better teach- 
ers in our public schools ? If you go to teachers' gather- 
ings, you will find that the chief complaint of superin- 
tendents is this : that our teachers are the same unskilled 
craftsmen that I have been speaking about in connection 
with business life. The great mass of our teachers — 
perhaps that is putting it too strong ; very, very many of 
our teachers are the unskilled craftsmen who are not 
able to exert the influence that they ought to exert in 
the way of uplifting the pupils and giving them the 
sense of social responsibility. They have not the knowl- 
edge ; in many cases they have not the strength of charr 
acter ; they have no adaptability to fit themselves to the 
conditions in which they work. They cannot recognize 
the differences in the individual characteristics of their 
pupils and in that way seize the opportunity to develop 
their pupils as they ought. 'Now, why do we have 
teachers of that kind ? Simply because we are unwill- 
ing to pay more. Often the difference of ten dollars a 
month would make all of the difference between an un- 
skilled, ignorant, incompetent teacher and a thoroughly- 
trained one who could put into the pupils the social and 
faithful spirit needed. 

But there is also another side to the question : we 
ought to have our children fitted for industrial life, 



128 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

because we all live in our business first, and we live in 
the higher interests afterwards. Nine out of ten of our 
waking thoughts are given to business; the tenth is 
given to these higher things that we set before us as our 
ideals. That is going to be true with our children just 
as much as it is with us, and under those circumstances 
we ought to see to it that they get business training in 
the highest and best way. It will in no way hinder the 
planting of ideals. But whom do we appoint to train 
our children in business ? As a rule, unmarried women 
who have had practically no experience in business. 
ISow, to avoid misunderstanding, I should like to say 
that the best teachers that I know are women ; I think 
women, as a rule, are as able and as good and as skillful 
teachers as the men are. But I still contend that, if we 
are to give our children an all-around business training, 
if we are to give them the right idea of business life, if 
we are to start our schools on the basis of our daily life 
and work outward, we should have our schools some- 
thing like the life outside the schoolroom. Outside, our 
workers are half men and half women, speaking 
roundly ; in our schools let us have the same proportion. 
Let us have the best women kept ; we certainly could 
not do better ; let the places of the others be taken by men 
as skillful as the best women whom we keep. This plan 
will cost a great deal more money, but it will be bringing 
our schools much closer to the kind of life that we want 
to train our children for. The reason why, to a consider- 
able extent, our schools have failed in practical training, 
is because we have been unwilling to pay to keep men 



THE RELATION OF THE SCHOOLS TO BUSINESS. 129 

in the public schools. The women are there ; we can get 
them cheaper. 

PATIENCE REQUIRED. 

Ultimately we can make great changes in our public 
schools and in the influence of our public schools upon 
our children's lives ; but we cannot hope to accomplish 
very much at once. In the first place, we must find our 
teachers and we must train them ; in the second place, we 
must convince our people that our plan is the right one ; 
in the third place, we must work out any problem of that 
kind through a series of experiments. It will take time, 
but the essential idea is right and the problem must be 
worked out in that way. Eventually we shall be able to 
make very great improvements. 

Again we must not think that we can accomplish too 
much. The schools can do a great deal, but the schools 
cannot furnish brains; and very many people are not 
people of great intellectual ability. IsTevertheless, every 
one can be improved, and our educational and social 
conditions may be made vastly better than they are now, 
by careful training from the beginning, although we 
cannot hope for too great results. 

I was reading lately a brief statement made by Booker 
T. Washington, with reference to his school for negroes 
at Tuskegee. In my judgment no other man in the 
United States to-day is doing so great a work in educa- 
tion, speaking generally, as is Booker Washington. In 
closing: his autobiographical sketch he gave the aims 
of his Institute, and told what he was trying to do for the 
young men and young women who study at Tuskegee. 
9 



130 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

" In the first place," he said (I am not quoting his words 
literally), " we try to teach our pupils to take the prob- 
lems of life that they meet now, and to solve them ; we 
wish them to learn to do the world's work as it comes to 
them, now ; in the second place, we try to teach every one 
of them to learn how, by means of his knowledge and his 
character, to support himself and others; and in the 
third place, we try to make every one of them feel that 
work is something that is noble and beautiful, and we try 
to instill into each of them a love of work and not a de- 
sire to avoid it." The result of these efforts has been 
that most of the pupils who have left there, he said, have 
shown that they have common sense and self-control. So 
far as I can see, the Tuskegee Institute is taking up this 
educational problem in the way that I have had in mind 
in this discussion. Mr. Washington is taking the life of 
to-day as he finds it in the South, and he is fitting his 
pupils for it by direct industrial training, as the central 
thought, with all of the other culture influences possible 
brought in to support that, to aid it and carry it out ; and 
he is bringing into their minds the idea of the social 
relationships that exist between the different people in 
the South, whites and blacks alike, and he makes them 
feel that they are all one great society. 

When, later on, we can get into our public schools all 
our children and can give them all a sense of the need 
for helpfulness, and a desire to serve others ; and then 
can make them feel also that they have the capabilities 
for self-direction, we shall have gone a long way toward 
preparing our pupils for the greater and better state that 
we all wish to see. 



V. 

EDUCATION" FOE COMMERCE : THE EAR 
EAST.* 

" Confucius was once keeper of stores, and he then said, *My 
calculations must all be right. That is all I have to care about.' 
He was once in charge of the public fields, and he then said, 
' The oxen and the sheep must be fat and strong and superior. 
That is all I have to care about.' " — Mencius. 

The discussion of Education for Business has been so 
ably carried on alonj^ general lines either by men im- 
mediately engaged in directing such education in schools 
and colleges, or by those doing business, that in speaking 
of the subject in its rather limited application to the com- 
mercial problems of the Far East it has seemed best for 
me to take the position, not of a business man, nor of 
a teacher, but of an economist "who has had some interest 
in the study of Far Eastern conditions, and from that 
view-point to comment upon some principles of busi- 
ness that are well-known, to be sure, but often over- 
looked in current discussion. We should note the con- 
ditions to be met before deciding the educational 
problem. It must be kept in mind that the work of the 
economist is simply to investigate and to state the prin- 
ciples of actual business. There is no true economic 

* Address at the University Convocation, Albany, July, 29, 
1905. North Amei'ican Revieiv, October, 1905. 

131 



132 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

science that is not based upon actual business, and there 
can be no sound business education that does not rest 
upon study of business conditions. Each new set of 
conditions makes a new problem. 

It will be assumed also as fundamental that business 
is a complicated subject requiring intelligence and train- 
ing to understand it thoroughly and ability often of a 
very high order to conduct it successfully on any large 
scale. The needed training must be gained in good part 
in actual touch with business itself; but the training in 
a business house may doubtless be shortened and like- 
wise made broader and better suited to modern opera- 
tions on a world-wide scale by preliminary study in 
special schools and colleges adapted to that end. How 
practical some of this training may be, is shown by the 
fact that, according to late investigations, over 30 per 
cent, of the exporting establishments of Great Britain 
now have in their employ Germans especially trained in 
the great commercial schools of Germany, and that the 
number of such trained employees is rapidly increasing. 
Great Britain has not yet provided schools to meet her 
own needs. 

NATURE OF COMMEECE. 

The subject of commerce includes, of course, retail 
and wholesale trade on the one hand, and local, national, 
and foreign trade on the other. Each one of these di- 
visions has its own problems and its own methods, and 
to a considerable extent the training for each must be 
special. ISTaturally some fundamental principles, those 
of accounting, for example, are similar in all. It is 



EDUCATION FOR COMMERCE: THE FAR EAST. 133 

necessary in every case that the business be so analyzed 
and understood that the reckoning of costs, and the de- 
termination of profits and losses can be made clear ; and 
in many other ways the lines of business will be found 
similar, whatever their scope. On the other hand, the 
methods of purchase and sale of the retailer of necessity 
differ decidedly from those of the wholesaler. His 
methods of advertising, his systems of credit, his per- 
centages of profit, his knowledge of markets, his whole 
range of information and activity must be vastly dif- 
ferent. Likewise the person who buys and sells locally, 
whose transportation of goods is limited by the delivery 
wagon, has problems quite different from those of the 
man whose business is largely a mail order or express 
business if he is a retailer, or whose range of sales is 
national if he is a wholesaler. Still a new and entirely 
different set of problems come up for the merchant whose 
business is international in its scope, ISTot merely has he 
many of the same problems that have perplexed the other 
merchants mentioned, but in addition come the problems 
of tariffs in both the countries of purchase and of sale, 
the questions of international exchange of moneys af- 
fected both by the character and quality of the moneys 
themselves and by the relative demand of each country 
for the goods of foreign countries as compared with the 
supply of its own goods which it ships abroad. In manv 
instances, also, aside from the more narrowly business 
questions, there enter into commercial transactions on 
a large scale questions of politics which cannot be 
ignored if one's business is to be successful; and again 
the question of national politics in the one instance may 



134 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

easily broaden into one of international politics in the 
other. The merchant in Chicago may find his busi- 
ness considerably hampered by the teamsters' strike 
and may find that this question is complicated by re- 
lations which may arise with the city government, the 
state government, or even the federal government ; but if 
his dealings are with the Far East, he may find that a 
shipment of machinery destined for Tientsin in ISTorth 
China has been carried off to Russian Vladivostock, as 
in one case which I knew, because the ship happened to 
carry also contraband of war for the Japanese, and the 
Russians captured it. 

GENERAL TRAINING FOR COMMERCE. 

In current discussions, in the press and elsewhere, 
many of the more fundamental principles of commerce 
and the training which is requisite in order to enable our 
young men to cope with the problems which may arise 
in their business, have been adequately considered. It 
is generally conceded that besides the principles of ac- 
counting and cost keeping referred to, one should pos- 
sess a fair knowledge of foreign exchange, a compre- 
hensive outlook over the most important markets for the 
purchase and sale of leading staple products, a reason- 
able understanding of shipping by water and rail routes, 
and the relative costs of different routes and classes of 
freights, an insight into the fundamental principles of 
commercial law, a sufficient knowledge of the languages 
of the countries in which one is to work, besides 
a detailed knowledge of the goods to be handled 
and the special requirements of the individual business, 



EDUCATION FOR COMMERCE: THE FAR EAST. 135 

which can be learned, of course, only in the business 
itself. I may assume, therefore, that these general prin- 
ciples are accepted and carried into effect, and I will 
simply answer further questions as to the peculiarities 
of commerce in the Far East which will require certain 
special training to be added to the general training thus [ 

outlined. Among the questions comes 

t 

THE PKOBLEM OF THE BALANCE OF TKADE. 

In most of the late discussions on the trade of the 
United States with the Orient, there has been emphatic 
insistence upon the necessity of our " extending our 
markets into the Orient," of our finding a field in which 
we may " dispose of the surplus of our manufactures." 
We have been repeatedly assured that if we are to be- 
come a great world power, it is necessary that we reach 
out and capture these Oriental markets for our goods 
as far as possible in advance of our rivals. Rel- 
atively very little has been said about the possibility of 
our finding in the Orient opportunities for purchases 
which may satisfy our own needs; and I have even 
found persons who have been speaking and writing 
upon these questions somewhat embarrassed when they 
were asked what the Americans proposed to accept in re- 
turn for the goods which they wished to sell in the 
Orient. It seems to have been thoughtlessly assumed 
either that we might be willing to sell to the Orient with- 
out securing a fair equivalent in return, or, what is 
much more likely, that the Oriental country to which we 
might sell would have an unlimited supply of cash with 
which to pay for our goods. If, however, we are contin- 



136 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

ually to expand our sales, there must be a corresponding 
expansion of the power of production in the Orient of 
those goods which the West may be willing to take in 
exchange. To take China for an illustration. For many 
years in the past China has paid for a large proportion 
of the goods which she has imported from foreign coun- 
tries by the export of silk and tea, though of late other 
shipments are relatively increasing. It is a fair question 
whether foreign countries, if they double or triple their 
sales to China are going to be willing to take twice or 
three times as much silk and tea in exchange at prices 
which will be substantially the same as those at present ; 
or whether they will take more products of other kinds 
from China. If China has not now sufficient acceptable 
means of payment, will foreigners be willing to take an 
active part by investing capital to develop certain new 
industries and added wealth there which will enable that 
country to supply foreign needs more readily in order to 
meet her increasing demands for foreign goods ? We too 
often overlook the fundamental principle that in the 
long run a country must pay for what she buys, and that, 
speaking generally, she must pay for the goods which 
she purchases by goods which she sells. 

Of course, in certain instances, if a country is a credi- 
tor country, as is England, she may purchase goods with 
the interest due on the bonds or stocks which she owns of 
a debtor country ; or if she has a great merchant marine, 
she may pay by the freights which foreign countries owe 
her citizens for transportation; or, if, as in the case of 
China, many of her citizens go abroad to labor, she may 
pay, in part, for the goods which she buys by the labor of 



EDUCATION FOR COMMERCE: THE FAR EAST. 137 

her citizens working in the foreign country. In other 
ways also payments may be made ; but in whatever way 
we explain the matter as regards details, it is still clear 
that the citizens of a country, by their labor or by their 
capital, must in some way pay for the goods which that 
country buys. They cannot increase their purchases un- 
less they also increase their sales, although of course it is 
not necessary that their exports go directly to the coun- 
tries from which their imports come. 

An apparent exception to this general principle 
should, however, be made in the discussion of the exten- 
sion of our commerce with the Far East. At the present 
time, China is much in need of railways, of iron bridges, 
of foreign machinery of various kinds. If our citizens 
have capital to invest in China and put that capital into 
the form of railway material or manufacturing es- 
tablishments, it is probable that these American owners 
of the capital thus invested may be willing to let their 
capital stay in China and to draw on that capital for 
use at home only the dividends on their investments. 
Indeed, in special cases investors might well be willing 
practically to transfer their capital to China and to re- 
invest their profits there, making that for the time being 
the home of their capital, if not their own personal 
home. To that extent there might be a selling of certain 
classes of goods to China for which for an indefinite 
period there would be no return demanded in the form 
of exported goods. The pay might be taken in only a 
claim to wealth there. This would constitute probably 
the only exception to the general principle laid down 
above. There is so much popular misconception on this 



138 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

subject that it is proper to emphasize here in connection 
with the subject of commercial extension this funda- 
mental principle of foreign exchange which would not 
be thought of in connection with local retail trade or 
national exchange. 

OUR TAR EASTERN MARKETS. 

T7e need also to distinguish rather sharply the differ- 
ent markets open to us in the Orient ; for the conditions 
of trade in these markets differ greatly, and the nature 
of the information needed and the methods to be em- 
ployed, differ accordingly. It is probable that for some 
years to come our chief oriental markets will be : 

(a) The Philippine Islands ; 

(b) China, including Manchuria ; 

(c) Japan, including Corea; 

(d) Other minor countries, such as Hongkong, the 
Straits Settlements, the Dutch East Indies, etc. 

The Philippine Islands. While the Philippine 
Islands are in one sense part of our national territory, 
in another sense they are to be considered in much the 
same way as foreign territory, because from their loca- 
tion many of their problems, such as the question of for- 
eign exchange in the payment for goods and the cost of 
transportation, are similar to those in connection with 
other countries of the Far East. On the other hand, as 
regards the political influences which have a bearing 
upon their commercial condition, the problem is mainly 
domestic. 

The Government there is, of necessity, friendly to the 



EDUCATION FOR COMMERCE: THE FAR EAST. 139 

Government of the United States. (It is proper, I 
think, under the circumstances, to speak of a " necessary 
friendliness.") The Government of the United States 
is disposed also to favor the industries of the Philippine 
Islands at the expense, if need be, of other forei^ coun- 
tries, if not of the United States themselves. The 
Philippines, in consequence, form in certain respects, 
perhaps, a better field for investment of American capi- 
tal than do the other countries under consideration. It 
is probable also that some of the products of the Philip- 
pines are better adapted at the present time for Ameri- 
can investments than those of most other countries, and 
investments are the forerunners of commerce in such 
cases. For example, nowhere else in the world is Manila 
hemp (the chief commercial product of the Philippine 
Islands for export purposes) produced to any noticeable 
extent, and as yet, in spite of the partial competition of 
sisal and other fibers, there has been found no real sub- 
stitute for it. Under the Spanish regime, and so far un- 
der the American regime, the methods of cultivation, of 
transportation, of purchase and sale and of local manu- 
facture of the hemp are of a very primitive nature. 
There can be no doubt that here is a very important 
field for the development of American commerce through 
a preliminary investment of American capital. Com- 
missioner Porbes lately wrote that we could " treble the 
output of hemp by giving adequate transportation and 
proper pay to the hemp cleaners." This will, in the 
first instance, make a demand for American machinery 
and steel in the Philippine Islands, and then later, as 
the hemp industry develops in importance and in value, 



140 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

this increased wealth will lead to an increased demand 
for other American products. 

The same statement may be made with somewhat less 
emphasis regarding the tobacco and sugar and cocoanut 
industries in the Philippines. The tobacco industry has 
already been developed to a considerable extent by Span- 
ish and Filipino capital, although there still remains 
an opportunity for further growth. It should become 
an immense industry, as should the extraction of cocoa- 
nut oil. The sugar industry, however, remains still in 
a decidedly primitive condition and apparently needs 
for its large expansion only a somewhat more liberal 
policy on the part of the American Congress in the di- 
rection of land privileges and lowered tariffs. Such 
added wealth would call for many more American prod- 
ucts to pay for the exported tobaccos, copra and sugars. 
With proper methods of agriculture, of transportation, 
and especially of manufacture in the sugar industry, 
there can be no doubt that it would greatly develop. 
Moreover, there is every reason to believe that when the 
capital was once invested, the increased sugar product 
would be sold largely, not on the American market, as 
our timid advisers of Congress seem to fear, but rather 
on the markets of China and other countries of the East, 
facts just made plain to Secretary Taft's party in 
Manila. The added purchasing power of the Philip- 
pines would still make a demand for American goods, 
even though the product itself were not sent directly to 
the United States. 

Still further investments in the building of railroads, 
of electric roads, of local steamship lines, of saw-mills, 



EDUCATION FOR COMMERCE: THE FAR EAST. 141 

and other industries of the Philippines, would carry out 
this same principle of increasing the trade of our home 
country as well as of the Philippines themselves through 
the development of their wealth by American invest- 
ments. They will not buy much more than they do now 
until they can sell more. 

China. The situation in China is much the same as 
in the Philippines, with two or three important lines of 
difference. In the first place, the money of China is 
without any fixed standard, consisting practically in 
case of larger payments only of silver bullion to be 
weighed out. Each large dealer — even each traveler of 
means — has his own scales to weigh out his money, while 
almost every separate town has its own unit of weight 
differing by often a considerable percentage from others. 
Silver bullion, too, is itself a marketable product of 
which the value continually fluctuates in terms of gold. 
These things make the risk of business on account of the 
impossibility of knowing the value of the money with 
which one is making his purchases or in which one may 
be paid for his products so much like gambling risks, 
that trade must of necessity be hampered until the 
Chinese Government can recognize its own needs enough 
to adopt some standard uniform system. The late de- 
crees of the Chinese Government on that subject are not 
reassuring. 

Again, owing to a considerable degree to the ill treat- 
ment which the Chinese have received from some for- 
eign countries through the seizure of territory and the 
mistreatment of individual Chinese, as well as to the 
very unfriendly attitude of some of the people of the 



142 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

United States in connection with Chinese immigration, 
and the rude treatment of cultivated Chinese at times 
by our immigration officials, the Chinese themselves 
are disposed to be suspicious, and, as we have seen of 
late, even decidedly unfriendly toward American trade. 
Not only are they inclined to boycott American goods 
in their purchases, but late letters from China inform 
me that they are urging the policy of refusing to work at 
all for Americans, to unload American goods from ships, 
or to handle them in any way. The boycott movement, 
put into effect in Shanghai, Canton and other ports in 
July, is spreading to Hongkong, the Straits Settlements 
and even to Japan and other places ouside of China 
where Chinese live in large numbers. This suggests 
another point in connection with the extension of for- 
eign commerce upon which too great emphasis cannot 
be placed. In order to extend business in any country, 
the dealings with that country both of the Government 
and of private merchants, must be first honest, and sec- 
ond courteous. 

There are many lines of investment in Chinese enter- 
prises which besides furnishing adequate returns on 
capital will in turn encourage American exports to 
China. ITot only may railroads and mines be developed, 
but such industries as the immense silk industry are 
managed by antiquated methods, and new capital and 
modern methods would give them an enormous de- 
velopment. 

For the present it is hard to tell whether the condi- 
tions in Manchuria are to be assimilated to those in 
China or to those in Japan. It is quite possible that the 



EDUCATION FOR COMMERCE: THE FAR EAST. 14.3 

latter will be the case ; but in any event the conditions 
must be studied carefully with reference to the needs 
and tastes and prejudices of the people of Manchuria 
rather than to our own customs. 

Japan. The conditions in Japan need to be differ- 
entiated quite sharply from those in China. In the first 
place, the monetary system is satisfactory, so that the 
risk of exchange is removed. Second, the Japanese, 
while disposed to be friendly, are nevertheless, as a na- 
tion, looking much more carefully after their own spe- 
cial internal interests than are the Chinese, so that it is 
perhaps more difficult to find there a field for profitable 
investment. As is well known, the feeling among for- 
eign investors in Japan in many instances is that they 
have not always been treated with fairness by the Japan- 
ese Government (for example in the case of the tobacco 
monopoly and at times in the courts) ; and furthermore, 
that Japanese tradesmen are not always trustworthy in 
their dealings. The Japanese are making earnest efforts 
to develop their own manufactures along many lines, so 
that their market needs to be more particularly studied 
with reference to the nature of the goods which Ameri- 
cans can sell there as well as with reference to the prod- 
ucts of Japan which can profitably be purchased by 
Americans. 

The Other Countries. 'No different condition in the 
other countries needs especially to be touched upon here 
as they are severally of relatively minor importance. 
Hongkong, a British possession, serves of course chiefly 
as a door for trade in China, while the other countries 
have each its own special needs to be studied. 



144 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

SUGGESTIONS. 

This hasty indication of what may be found in the 
Philippines and in some of the other countries serves 
as a basis for touching briefly upon some of the princi- 
ples that need to be taught in connection with our com- 
mercial colleges and carefully considered by our ex- 
porters. First, it cannot be emphasized too often that 
in selling goods it is necessary to consider the likes and 
dislikes of the purchasers rather than our own. Our 
consuls are continually dwelling upon the fact that 
American manufacturers and merchants are too strongly 
inclined to insist upon keeping their own standards and 
imposing those standards upon the Chinese, Japanese, 
and other foreigners. We have not yet felt the necessity 
of developing our foreign trade (in spite of all that we 
say about it in the newspapers) to anything like the 
extent to which it has been felt in Europe, and in conse- 
quence we have not learned this lesson. Illustrations 
from two of our late consular reports will explain : 

1. Chinese shoes are quite different in type and style 
from American shoes ; in consequence, our American 
rubber over-shoes and boots are sold hardly at all in 
China, ^vhereas Germany is supplying many. The Ger- 
mans make a special, short half-boot of light weight 
w^hich does meet Chinese requirements, and the Chinese 
are using them in large numbers ; whereas the American 
rubbers can be worn, and are worn only by the few 
Chinese who have adopted the foreign style of dress, or 
by those who wear them as shoes and not as over-shoes. 

2. Ginseng is another American product which for 



EDUCATION FOR COMMERCE: THE FAR EAST. 145 

many decades has been valued in China. As is well 
known, many Chinese believe that the ginseng root pos- 
sesses certain mysterious qualities which make it play an 
important part in their lives, and which render it in 
many particulars " the greatest medicine of earth." 
They believe that these unusual qualities are most fre- 
quently found in roots which are knotted or gnarled or 
which have a peculiar color, or an abnormal shape, par- 
ticularly if the root resembles some fabulous animal. 
These facts are well known to the native dealers, but 
not in many cases to tlie American producers. The con- 
sequence is that the American product, which is culti- 
vated, often takes on a form smooth and normal, and in 
consequence relatively of slight value, whereas a little 
care in cultivation would render a root gnarled and ugly 
and consequently many times more valuable. This is 
not suggesting an adulteration or a misrepresentation 
of the product nor selling under false labels or names ; 
it suggests meeting your customers' wants. In many 
instances the chief value that the root possesses is that it 
satisfies the superstitious desires of the Chinese — not 
their physical needs. The Chinese dealers in many 
cases, owing to our lack of knowledge and our neglect 
to classify the products sent, reap a profit which might 
equally well be secured by the American producer, pro- 
vided the local conditions were known ; and in addition 
the American would greatly increase his sales. 

The Germans and the Japanese have far outstripped 

us in their readiness to meet Chinese needs. Hundreds 

of miles in the interior of China are found clocks, cheap 

ornaments and toilet articles of various kinds made in 

10 



146 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

Germany or Japan, often after an American model, 
sometimes labelled as American, but poorer and cheaper 
than the American product, and in consequence more ac- 
ceptable to the Chinese. If our merchants had learned 
the principle that they must study the needs of their 
customers as thoroughly as have the Germans and the 
Japanese, we should in many cases be supplying the 
needs now supplied by them. 

Moreover, we have not learned to pack our goods well 
for so long and difficult a shipment. In consequence 
our goods frequently arrive in the Far East so damaged 
that they are scarcely saleable — an inexcusable neglect 
showing lack of intelligent information. 

Again, the English particularly, but also the Germans, 
have accustomed the people in the Ear East to long-time 
credits. Obtaining their capital at low rates of interest 
at home, they will readily carry an account for six 
months or a year, whereas our dealers often require pay- 
ment in cash, even in part before the goods are deliv- 
ered. We can scarcely hope to achieve great success if 
we do not recognize customs of credit such as these. 

Most important, perhaps, of all, as I have intimated 
before, is the fact that we do not always have the reputa- 
tion of fair and courteous dealing, either politically or 
in a business way, though in these regards we are on the 
whole not worse than others. The Chinese distrust all 
foreigners in many ways, though generally recognizing 
the business honesty of the regularly established houses. 

The record which the Americans have made in work- 
ing the concession for what is possibly the most import- 
ant railway in all China (the Canton-Hankow line), 



EDUCATION FOR COMMERCE: THE FAR EAST. 147 

has greatly discredited us. In the concession it was pro- 
vided that the Company should be and should remain 
American; but within a comparatively short time the 
control of a majority of the stock was placed in the 
hands of the Belgians, who were apparently so associ- 
ated with the French and the Russians that the Chinese 
felt, and with reason, that they had been grossly deceived 
and mistreated, not to use so strong a word as betrayed, 
by the Americans. Only under pressure of the threat 
of canceling the concession was the road finally bought 
back by Americans, and sold back to the Chinese at a; 
high profit; and it is still an open question whether 
even the late dealings are to be justified on moral 
grounds. This treatment, which the Chinese themselves 
believe to be dishonorable, and which very many Ameri- 
cans who have investigated the question likewise con- 
consider dishonorable, has so discredited our Govern- 
ment and our business men, that the small amount of 
money made by a few private speculators has been lost 
hundreds of times over by the loss of national and busi- 
ness prestige thereby incurred with its consequent ill 
effect upon our commerce. 

There is little use of attempting to extend trade in a 
country, unless we are willing so to deal that the citizens 
will have confidence in us and will be inclined, on the 
whole, to like us rather than to dislike us. The prompt 
action of the President in his orders regarding immigra- 
tion to our consuls and immigration officials is clearly 
wise and right. It is to be hoped that we have learned 
a lesson from our humiliating experience in connection 
with the Canton-Hankow railway. 



148 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

It is to be said, on the other hand, that American in- 
dividuals, whether travelers or business men resident in 
China, are often, if not usually, better liked personally 
by the Chinese than are the citizens of almost any other 
country. Americans as a rule are more kindly and more 
courteous in their treatment of the Chinese than are 
others. They have been trained in a democratic coun- 
try, and are more likely to treat the Chinese as equals, 
or at any rate as human beings, than as beings of an in- 
ferior order which may be beaten or kicked or insulted 
at will. I have seen foreigners traveling in the Interior 
stone Chinese bystanders who were merely gratifying a 
natural curiosity by looking at them, as in our rural 
districts where Chinese are rarely seen they would be 
looked at by our people. In Peking even, I saw one day 
an Austrian sentry, instead of quietly warning off an 
old ignorant Chinese and his wife riding a donkey along 
a forbidden path, utterly innocent of any wrongdoing, 
club them both with a heavy cane until the old woman 
fell from the donkey in her fright and efforts to dodge. 
Such actions arouse feelings against all foreigners that 
are seriously detrimental to commerce. 

In China particularly one should know the technical 
laws growing out of the principle of exterritoriality, 
which obtains in China in the dealings between the 
Chinese and foreigners. It might frequently be very 
useful to know the leading points in the commercial 
laws of Germany, France, England, and other countries, 
because the laws of those countries are administered in 
China in the consular courts representing the different 
countries. Of course the knowledge of goods of the 



EDUCATION FOR COMMERCE: THE FAR EAST. 149 

type which the merchant proposes to sell or buy is essen- 
tial — this much in general in common with the prepara- 
tion for all commerce. 

We need, moreover, to train our young men, whether 
they expect to serve as consuls or as salesmen, that, if 
they are to succeed, they must be prepared to stay in 
the Orient a considerable length of time, and to study 
carefully the conditions. If their field of work is in 
China and they wish to be thorough, they must learn 
Chinese — at any rate must learn to speak the commer- 
cial Chinese, and that is no more difficult than to learn 
to speak German, although it is much more difiicult to 
learn to write Chinese than to learn to write German. 
The Germans are compelling many of their well-trained 
young men to familiarize themselves with the Chinese 
language. We must do the same with ours. 

Of greater importance is it, however, to study the 
Chinese customs of living, of manufacturing, of buying 
and selling, so that our manufacturers may fit their sup- 
plies to the local demands, and may stand ready to learn 
what opportunities may arise for improving the products 
of China which they may wish to buy for export. The 
general principles of buying and selling, of account 
keeping, etc. may be learned in our schools ; the details 
of an oriental business (for they are vastly different 
from those in our own country) can be learned only in 
the Orient. 

The principles of money and of banking, and especi- 
ally of foreign exchange, must be learned, and thor- 
oughly learned ; first, because, on account of the present 
evils arising from fluctuations in exchange, business is 



150 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

largely speculative and it is necessary to reduce the 
risks as far as possible; and second, because it is im- 
portant that every foreign dealer in China so under- 
stand what is needed that his influence may continually 
be used to induce the Chinese Government to improve 
its system. Too many of the suggestions already made 
by foreigners, some of them indeed largely accepted by 
the Chinese, have been suggestions in the wrong direc- 
tion. 

It is important, too, for success from a national point 
of view in this commerce, that a pretty thorough train- 
ing in economics be had, enough to know and to feel 
that it will pay as well to learn what the Orient can sell 
as what it will buy, to see that exploitation is not a 
sound policy for a permanent foreign trade, but that a 
large and permanent trade can be built up in the long 
run only if it is soundly based upon a fair exchange for 
the benefit of both countries, and that an investment in a 
foreign country for the purpose of developing its ex- 
port trade may prove as useful to the home nation as 
selling goods in that foreign country for the immediate 
profit of the home exporter. 

Those interested in our commercial expansion in the 
Far East may also look further and see what can be done 
to train capable Chinese here ; the Japanese are looking 
well after their own training. The education here of 
Chinese and Japanese will also extend trade, and I con- 
sider it of prime importance both commercially and 
politically. It is well known that Japan, Belgium, 
Germany, and other countries are offering special in- 
ducements to young Chinese to go to those countries to 



EDUCATION FOR COMMERCE: THE FAR EAST. 151 

study, and they are going to those countries in far larger 
numbers than they are coming here. According to late 
estimates there are some 3,000 government students, 
besides even more private students, in Japan ; 300 to 500 
in Germany ; as many in France and Belgium ; while 
there are perhaps 150 in the United States. There can 
be no doubt that when these Chinese return home to 
undertake work as engineers or as manufacturers or as 
merchants or as officials, they will certainly favor in the 
long run the countries in which they have been trained. 
It is greatly to be desired that both our Government and 
our people do what they can to encourage Chinese, 
Japanese, Filipinos and other Orientals to come here to 
secure their training, both general and commercial. We 
can afford to make good financial expenditures to bring 
about that result. 

And, finally, it is important to emphasize again that 
a fundamental business principle to be taught in our 
commercial schools and to be kept in mind is that toler- 
ant, liberal, fair dealing is the only wise policy from the 
business as well as from the moral point of view. This 
principle needs particularly to be emphasized in connec- 
tion with the Orient, and with other countries less de- 
veloped in commercial and manufacturing methods than 
our own, because the temptation is always stronger to 
deal unfairly with those unversed in Western methods, 
and because, as a matter of fact, the attempt has been 
made and in many cases successfully, both by govern- 
ments and by individuals, to exploit unfairly many of 
the Orientals. 



VI. 

FREE SPEECH IN AMERICAN UNIVERSI- 
TIES.* 

" The right of private judgment will subsist, in full force, wher- 
ever true men subsist. A true man believes with his whole judg- 
ment, with all the illumination and discernment that is in him, 
and has always so believed. A false man, only struggling to ' be- 
lieve that he believes,' will naturally manage it in some other 
way. " — Carlyle. 

Tpie grave differences of opinion between the presi- 
dent and the trustees of Brown University regarding 
the duties and the privileges of a university president 
make it desirable that the nature of a university be once 
more carefully considered by the public; for no one 
questions the good faith and sincerity — even the rare 
conscientiousness — which, on the one hand, forced the 
trustees in the performance of their duty to suggest to 
the president that he more carefully " refrain from pro- 
mulgating " his private opinions on certain matters of 
public interest, and, on the other, compelled the presi- 
dent in the interest of freedom of speech for university 
teachers rather to lay down his high office than to bind 
himself beyond what his own good sense should, as oc- 

* Written at the time of the resignation of President Andrews 
from Brown University, 1897, but not published. 

153 



154 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

casion arose, determine. !From the differing points 
of view each side was clearly right; the right point of 
view must be found by considering the aims of a uni- 
versity and the best means of attaining them. 

Most university trustees are business men, accustomed 
to employ others to carry out their views and to repre- 
sent their opinions in business matters. The skilled 
workman in a factory may have opinions of his own 
regarding the best methods of work and the best rules 
for laborers; but he is expected, and very properly, to 
carry out the views of his employer. Even in other 
matters, if his habits or his views spoil his efficiency or 
injure his employer's business, he is not permitted to re- 
main. An employee is not expected to talk in public re- 
garding his employer's dishonesty or recklessness in 
business or even of the foolishness of his investments, if 
there is any likelihood that the employer's credit will be 
lessened by the talk. 

If a lawyer's views regarding the merits of a case are 
adverse to the client's interest as the client sees it, no 
one blames the latter for seeking another lawyer. 

Or, again, if in a Baptist or a Congregational theo- 
logical seminary a professor becomes convinced that only 
the Roman Catholic church has the right views regard- 
ing church organization and government or regarding 
religious doctrine and feels called upon to convince the 
young men under his charge that their church is wrong 
in these particulars, few people would question either 
the right or the wisdom of the trustees in calling for 
the professor's resignation and advising him to seek a 
position in a Eoman Catholic seminary. It is his 



FREE SPEECH IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES. 155 

business to promulgate the doctrines of his church as 
the church authorities have determined them. If from 
deeper study he comes to the conclusion that the views 
of his church are wrong, he may properly try to win 
the church to his views, but if he fails he must be ready 
to go. He cannot be permitted to wreck his church by 
teaching false doctrines — and for the time at least every 
doctrine is false for his church that is rejected by its 
authorities. It is true that in late years many have 
believed that teachers in theological seminaries, special- 
ists of great learning, should be permitted to teach 
without interference what their studies have led them 
to believe is true ; but when questions are fundamental to 
the special doctrine, all would agree that this freedom 
is impossible. How could a Baptist professor believe 
in sprinkling and still be a Baptist, or a Roman Catho- 
lic fail to recognize the authority of his superior ! 

But the purpose of a university in the best use of that 
word is different. It does not exist to carry out the 
specific plans of its trustees as regards business or doc- 
trine. It cannot proselyte nor specially shape opinions 
without being false to its principles as a university. A 
university exists to seek for truth in its various phases 
and to make of its students investigators, seekers after 
truth. It must not even make it a chief purpose to 
teach the truth as its professors see it. If it attempts 
this chiefly, it becomes a mere seminary (a place for 
sowing seed) or trade school, and no longer a univer- 
sity in the proper sense. 

The spirit of a university is in its teachers. The 
great teachers are not men who merely tell what they 



156 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

have learned — any parrot can do that — and as a source 
of mere information a book is often better than a man ; 
but the great teachers are men who can open the eyes 
of their pupils to see the truth, and can fill their hearts 
with a determination to seek the truth and to live by it. 
The university exists, not to make scientists or philoso- 
phers in the technical sense, but to make men of all pro- 
fessions who shall be independent and resourceful and 
lovers of truth ; and such men cannot be made by teach- 
ers whose business it is to administer dogmas, whether 
such dogmas be theological or biological or political. 
Independence of spirit and soundness of judgment are 
essential qualifications for the highest success in life, 
and it is these qualifications that the university seeks to 
give. 

Moreover, this view is the practical one. It is true 
that the university is a place where a student acquires 
knowledge. If his taste leads him to study entomology 
or electrical engineering or bridge building or Greek or 
political economy as a specialty, he will acquire a knowl- 
edge of many facts in connection with his subject ; but 
he will never become a master, a man who is fit for great 
work in his specialty, unless he has also acquired inde- 
pendence of judgment and readiness of resource in meet- 
ing new problems. The civil engineer has a new 
hitherto unsolved problem with every new bridge; the 
statesman one with every new tax law. Conditions 
in practical life are never twice the same, and only sound 
judgment and independent power will avail in meeting 
new conditions. ISTot knowledge primarily, but power, 
is what one needs in life, and good sense and independ- 



FREE SPEECH IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES. 15Y 

ent judgment are worth more than knowledge. Knowl- 
edge can be communicated by dogmatic teaching; inde- 
pendent judgment can be developed only by throwing 
the student on his own resources, making him think out 
his problems for himself, with no attempt on the part 
of the teacher to urge his own opinion. Unless the 
teacher can give his pupils the feeling, not merely that 
they are free to form their own opinions on all questions 
that come up, but that they must form such opinions 
with perfect fairness and freedom, he is a failure as a 
university teacher. 

This is not the view of the functions of the university 
that is commonly taken by the newspapers, and presum- 
ably by many of the best university trustees; but it is 
the view generally accepted by those most skilled in 
training young people, and reflection shows us that it 
is the right one. We more frequently see the statement 
made that universities are to teach the truth — and in 
such connection truth, of course, can m.ean only truth 
as some one, the speaker, sees it. The burden of the 
complaint against President Andrews is that he has 
been uttering the truth as he sees it, and not as it is seen 
by the Corporation. On this point not only the letter 
of the committee but also that of Mr. Walker, and even 
the wisely temperate letter of Dr. Wayland, agree. 
None of them questions the President's sincerity or his 
manliness. As I understand the matter, none of them 
would hint for a moment that his influence over young 
men in the university would be anything but inspiring, 
ennobling, uplifting. They believe that his political 
views, if put into effect, would lead to dishonesty. He, 



158 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

with equal sincerity, believes that their political views 
put into effect have led to dishonesty. (In both cases I 
rule out the meaning of intentional wrong-doing.) 

Now this difference of opinion, frankly avowed and 
clearly understood, would stimulate young men at Brown 
University to face the question of free silver coinage 
fairly, fully, freely, and would form a test exercise of 
uncommon interest and value in training their powers 
of independent thought leading to conscientious action. 
That one of them could be injured intellectually or 
morally by such a study of a controverted question is 
inconceivable. But if he were given only one side of 
every such question and had the doctrine fed him as 
the only mental and moral nourishment, his mind and 
heart might be crammed with learning and prejudice 
indeed, but would surely be dwarfed from lack of free 
exercise. Moreover, if he knew that his professor or 
president was hampered in expression of opinion by the 
views of others — especially by those who must have 
studied the question with less care than himself — he 
would surely be led to feel that the pursuit of truth was 
not an attractive purpose in life, nor would he reverence 
and follow the example of his teacher, but would despise 
him as a weakling. And this attitude toward the teacher 
is of vital import in all universities. There is little 
education of consequence that does not come through 
personal contact. Every thoughtful man knows that 
there is no other ennobling power that can compare in 
efficiency with that of a strong personality, working 
freely on terms of intimacy with those who are young 
and impressionable. To put a seal upon the lips of 



FREE SPEECH IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES. 159 

strong, good men is to dry up the fountains of life of 
the people. 

But besides these general considerations regarding the 
purpose and method of a university, one should note 
some specific points made by the trustees of Brown. It 
is urged first, and very proj^crly, that persons in posi- 
tions of responsibility must place limits upon their 
utterances, that their very position binds them to self- 
restraint. This is doubtless true ; but here again we 
should seek for the guiding principle. The power for 
good is not limited by restraints that are self imposed 
for worthy reasons ; it is limited by external restraints 
that hamper its efficiency. 

All will agree that the highest duty of every man is to 
further the best interests of society to the utmost of his 
ability. Most people will agree tliat this can almost, if 
not quite, invariably be done best by devoting one's 
energies to the special work in life that one has under- 
taken. If one is a physician, his greatest service can be 
rendered by furthering the interests of his profession ; if 
one is a preacher, let him devote himself to the moral 
and spiritual uplifting of his fellows ; if one is a uni- 
versity president, let liim place before all else the true 
welfare of his university. 

Most political campaigns, like the one here involved,* 
have a moral phase ; but opinions always differ as to the 
side which is right. In almost all cases the preacher 
will find that his influence for good, even in political 
matters, is greatest if he in a non-partisan way sees the 

*The campaign of 1896 in which the question of the free coin- 
age of silver was the main issue. 



160 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

good on both sides and the evils in both parties and con- 
fines his preaching to combating generally recog-nized 
evils and aiding the well-known good without preaching 
party politics. To be sure he might possibly carry an 
election locally sometimes by so j^reaching; but, if he 
did, he would probably by so doing gain the reputation 
of being a one-sided partisan who could see evil only 
in his opponents, good only in his friends ; and his per- 
manent influence for good with a large proportion of 
the community, including probably many of his o\vn 
congregation, would be destroyed. 

It may be that on rarest occasions a minister should in 
the interest of his fellows abandon the pulpit for the 
platform or the battlefield ; usually when he does so it is 
because he is carried away by partisan feeling, not be- 
cause he is moved by a wise patriotism. Likewise, a 
university professor of politics or economics, or possibly 
a university president, by entering the arena of par- 
tisan contest may weaken his direct influence over those 
in his charge by gaining a reputation of being prejudiced 
on one side. It may be in grave emergencies that it 
is his duty to take an active part in politics, even 
though his university influence be weakened ; but in most 
cases his service to the public is likely to be greater if 
his attitude is that of a fair-minded man rather than of 
a partisan. While a teacher of politics or economics 
may perhaps be fair-minded and active in party politics, 
his students of the opposite party will hardly think so. 
This however does not mean that a Christian minister, 
a professor of economics or politics, or a university 
president is not to have positive opinions on political 



FREE SPEECH IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES. 161 

questions and to express them. They are all citizens 
of the State, and from their positions ought to be im- 
usually well informed on pnblic affairs. Their coimsel 
ought to be of value. It is simply a question of the 
way to render the greatest service in the long run; and 
the probability is that this will be by fair-minded, tem- 
perate expression of well-considered views as occasion 
demands, not by active partisan work, which, for men 
in their position, is likely to lessen materially their influ- 
ence in their regular work. But the man who fears to 
give an honest opinion on a public question which he 
has especially studied because it might offend someone 
who has power over him, is a coward and a traitor to 
the good of the community, whose influence will not go 
far because people will not respect or trust him. 

On the other hand, we must not overlook the fact that 
intemperate or ill-advised or indiscreet expressions of 
opinion or unwise disclosures of policy are among the 
best evidences of incompetency that a board of trustees 
can have. When a professor is dismissed — and prop- 
erly dismissed — for incompetency, he and his friends 
will naturally feel that the cause must be something 
else, and they are likely to refer it to the prejudices of 
the trustees. They charge an attack upon freedom of 
teaching when the true cause is unfitness ; unfitness not 
because the professor has wrong views — that is of slight 
moment — but because he has not good sense, tact and 
judgment, which alone would fit him for his work. 

The supporters of the views of the trustees of Brown 
University, including Dr. Wayland and Mr, Walker, 
urge, secondly, that the doctrine of the free coinage of 
11 



162 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

silver is immoral and that the teaching of immoral 
tenets must be stopped. All will agree that the teach- 
ing of some doctrines abhorrent to the moral sense of the 
community ought not to be permitted in a university. 
A professor who advocated openly or secretly free love 
or burglary or generally recognized crime or any crime 
of any kind ought clearly to be removed; but any sub- 
ject whatever that in the field of religion or science or 
politics is so debatable that it can be a matter of party 
division is clearly not included in this class. To at- 
tempt to put it there is simply to declare one's self ill- 
informed or narrow-minded or bigoted. Tolerance has 
been said to spring from indifference, and this may be 
true at times ; but generally speaking it comes from en- 
lightenment. Every well-informed student of econ- 
nomics and politics knows that every question that be- 
comes the cause of division between parties has truth 
enough on both sides so that equally honest and upright 
men may be found on either side. 

I trust that it will not seem invidious to call attention 
to the fact that it is rather presumptuous for the trustees 
of Brown University and the newspapers that side with 
them to assume that nothing short of mental weakness 
or blind prejudices or moral obliquity can explain Presi- 
dent Andrew^s' attitude on the silver question ; for every 
well-informed man knows that he has, prima facie at 
any rate, a better right to a positive opinion on this 
most complicated and difficult question than, certainly, 
most of these critics. He was delegated by the 
United States Government to represent it at the Inter- 
national Monetary Conference of Brussels in 1892 be- 



FREE SPEECH IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES. 163 

cause of his special knowledge of this subject. His rep- 
utation as a student of this special subject is certainly far 
greater than that of the great majority of his trustees ; 
and the significance of his utterance Avas not chiefly, 
as Dr. Wayland implies, because he was president of 
Brown University, but because he was a world-wide 
authority on that special question. Even if one were to 
urge the popular verdict, the majority of the Rhode 
Islanders have more than once committed themselves 
to the doctrine of international bimetallism, and if the 
doctrine of free silver is dishonest, that of international 
bimetallism is less so only in degree. Either plan 
would lessen the value of gold. Moreover, every student 
knows that the decided majority of special students of 
the subject the world over have expressed themselves on 
the side of international bimetallism, so far as its 
economic practicability is concerned. Many of them 
oppose it now, because they believe that it is politically 
impossible, and that therefore to advocate it is like chas- 
ing moonshine. But whatever his conclusion, every one 
who has really thoroughly studied the question has so 
keen a sense of its complexity and almost infinite diffi- 
culty that he will not quickly accuse any man who 
differs from him in opinion of either insincerity or men- 
tal obtuseness or moral obliquity. Since natural science 
has been thoroughly studied apart from religious prej- 
udices, few men venture to criticise a scientific expert's 
judgment in his chosen field. In a similar way, but 
partly too from indifference, most educated people are 
tolerant on religion to a fair degree. But few people 
recognize the complexity and difficulty of economic and 



164 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

political problems, while, as the State's action is likely 
to affect their pockets, they have an intense and abiding 
interest in them. The consequence is often an intol- 
erance regarding these matters no longer found in other 
fields. 

It is urged further that the president of a university 
especially, and its professors in a less degree, " repre- 
sent the corporation," and must therefore not express 
opinions that differ from those of the trustees, if the 
trustees think them important. But surely the trustees 
are represented by these men only in strictly university 
matters. A Republican Baptist minister might well 
represent in a religious convention a congregation made 
up chiefly of Populists. Likewise a Roman Catholic 
representative in Congress might well be the best repre- 
sentative for a Protestant constituency. He is not 
representing their religion but their political interests, 
though the foolish prejudices of voters might prevent 
their electing him even if he were the best man for the 
place. Are trustees of a university also to be moved by 
prejudice ? The trustees of a college may wisely ques- 
tion whether their president or professors are fairly 
representing their spirit in arousing in the hearts of 
their students the hunger for truth and the determina- 
tion to live for its satisfaction. If they demand beyond 
this that the president and professors shall close the 
minds of the students to all aspects of the truth except- 
ing those enjoyed by the trustees themselves (and this 
they do when they ask their representative to abstain 
from a fair expression of his views when his own good 
sense tells him that on a public question he should 



FREE SPEECH IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES. 165 

speak his thoughts as a man and citizen), they are either 
short-sightedly failing to see the true purpose of the 
university or they are recreant to their trust, and are 
trying to use the organization endowed for the broaden- 
ing of minds to further their own selfish or narrow- 
minded views. Personally I do not question the 
worthiness of motive of the Brown trustees ; but how 
will the millions of sincere, honest, though possibly 
unwise men who believe in the free coinage of silver 
judge the motives of a board who permit one of their 
professors to leave his students for seven weeks to 
preach the doctrine of gold which the silver men believe 
dishonest, and strive to still the tongue of a more gene- 
rally recognized authority on the subject who merely in 
answer to a friend's question expressed a belief in the 
free coinage of silver ! 

But again, how does a professor represent his college ? 
A lawyer represents his client, a physician represents 
his patient's interest ; but in both cases the representa- 
tives are experts, and if sincerely working for their 
clients' interests their clients are called fools if they 
do not grant them a wide discretion. It may be at 
times, of course, that they must call the expert's atten- 
tion to conditions that may have escaped his attention ; 
but the judgment must almost invariably be his. So in 
a university, the professor is engaged as an expert. He 
will always be glad to have his attention called to the 
facilities furnished him for doing his work, to the condi- 
tions of all kinds surrounding him ; but the conduct of 
the work must be left to him or the work cannot be well 
done. If he is not better fitted to conduct his work than 



166 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

are his trustees, including his conduct in private affairs 
so far as it can affect his work, he ought not to be in 
his place. 

But it is said, again, that while the trustees cannot 
wisely interfere with a professor in teaching his special- 
ity, for that would be an unwise interference with the 
freedom of academic teaching, a university president is 
an executive officer — and at Brown President Andrews 
is not hired to teach political economy — and suggestions 
to him not to express his views on political questions is 
not interference with freedom of teaching. No man 
who knows and feels the spirit of a university life can 
fail to consider this a mere quibble. The essence of 
true teaching, as has been said, is the awakening of zeal 
for a fair-minded search for truth. The spirit may be 
given in many ways, outside the class-room as well as in 
it ; and no one so much as the president ought to be the 
impersonation of the higher life of truth-seeking and 
truth-loving, jSTo man who cannot be trusted to speak 
wisely and keep silent discreetly is fit for such a place; 
but no man in such a place can have his course dictated 
by others without losing his influence for good. More- 
over, on questions of public import on which a man from 
his special study believes himself qualified to speak, a 
man must be ready to speak temperately and justly 
when asked, even if his opinions find no echo in the 
minds of the trustees or of the community ; otherwise 
he is too poor a citizen and too small a soul to kindle 
in the minds of his students the loyalty and zeal for 
truth which it is his chief duty to inspire. Young men 
like neither cowards nor time-servers, nor respect them. 



FREE SPEECH IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES. 167 

The trustees of a university, then, have not merely 
the privilege but the duty of furthering the interests 
of the institution in their charge in every practicable 
way. It is their business to find fit professors and presi- 
dents and to remove or guide those who in their judg- 
ment are unfit. The question whether they shall at- 
tempt to restrict the expression of professors or presi- 
dents on political or religious or scientific questions is 
purely one of expediency. 

From consideration of the purpose of the university 
itself, however, it appears that interference with such 
freedom of expression can be only detrimental. The 
other opinion can have come only from misconception 
or forgetfulness of the highest aims of a university, 
and from dwelling too much upon the function of mere 
knowledge giving. The professors too are largely re- 
sponsible for this. Many of them teach chiefly with 
that in view. Many of them, even in economics and 
politics, seem to feel that to drive the right doctrines, 
i.e., their doctrines, into their students' minds is the 
main thing, forgetting that the questions of to-day may 
be settled to-morrow, or that new conditions may make 
the solutions of to-day false to-morrow; and that there- 
fore impartial judgment and power to grapple suc- 
cessfully with social problems is what especially the 
coming statesmen need. 

From this standpoint too, of mere knowledge giving, 
the financial interests of the university are apt to assume 
an exaggerated importance. They are of grave import- 
ance, of course, but the chief expenditures of a uni- 
versity are for knowledge giving. For building men 



168 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

into truth-loving, truth-seeking characters, the chief 
essential is the personality of the teacher, and the life 
blood of this personality must be freedom with no limits 
save those wisely self-imposed. 

But beyond its special import to teachers and univer- 
sities, the question to-day, with our great universities 
largely endowed by wealthy men or directly dependent 
on the state, has a far-reaching social significance. The 
wealthy business man is wont to rule. It is natural 
that he should see somewhat too clearly perhaps the 
excellence of business methods. With the best of inten- 
tions, too, it is natural that needy institutions — and all 
universities are in need — should attempt to please pos- 
sible benefactors, whether wealthy men or legislators, 
by catering to their tastes. Energy should rather be 
expended in giving to benefactors the right views re- 
garding universities, though this at first would not 
prove so successful financially. The danger of lower- 
ing university ideals for money, though possibly not 
so imminent as many think, is grave ; for truth 
cannot stoop to sue for favor. The university officials 
who compromise opinion for money are stifling that 
breath of freedom by which alone the true university 
can live. The attempt, conscious or unconscious, to 
stop the expression of economic or political error is in 
our country anarchistic in the proper sense of the word, 
for our ideal government is free. To-day the socialists 
are saying that the wealthy and the powerful are the 
anarchists, for it is they, it is said, who are wresting 
the laws away from their constitutional intent ; it is they 
who threaten resistance to the will of the majority when 



FREE SPEECH IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES. 169 

that will seems to thwart their interests ; it is thej who 
at times buy legislators and stifle the expression of 
public opinion. The accusation is becoming a frequent 
one, and many believe in its truth, that even to-day 
preachers and teachers are the hirelings of the rich and 
powerful, bound to inculcate error instead of to seek for 
and to promulgate truth. The charge to-day, fortunately 
for our country, has only the slightest basis of truth ; but 
there can be little doubt that many influences are tending 
that way. It behooves, therefore, the guardians of our 
universities that the charge shall not merely not become 
true, but that no acts of theirs shall so much as arouse 
the suspicion that it may be true. Even such a sus- 
picion would do our universities more harm than the 
open teaching of error. Error promulgated in the light 
is not dangerous. In social struggles each side that 
believes itself in the right welcomes an open contest. 
He who shrinks from an open contest, but would strike 
an opponent in the dark, confesses his weakness. Truth 
fights best in the open. 



VII. 
'A CRITIQUE OF EDUCATIONAL VALUES.* 

"This gives force to the strong,— tliat the multitude have no 
habit of self-reliance or original action." — Emerson. 

The article on " The Educational Value of College 
Studies," by Professor Patten, which appeared in the 
Educational Review for Eebruary, 1891, is so sound 
in many of its positions and so interesting and suggestive 
throughout, that it may seem almost invidious to write in 
opposition to the views therein expressed; and yet the 
very ability of the article is, perhaps, a reason why its 
mistaken opinions should be controverted. Especially 
is this true, if, as appears, those opinions are such that 
they would, if generally received, prove a real hindrance 
to the progress of educational science and practice ; and 
false opinions on such a subject might readily lead to a 
revision of college studies that would prove very injur- 
ious. 

With the purpose of college life and college studies 
as interpreted by Professor Patten, whatever some so- 
called practical-minded parents may think, all progres- 
sive teachers will in the main agree. Professor Patten 
well says : " The educational value lies not in the 
knowledge imparted, but in the effect upon the student. 

* Published in the " Educational Review" January, 1892. 

171 



172 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

It gives him a better capacity for work, a faculty to do 
other work of a like character, purer ideas of life, 
greater confidence in his intellect, and keener apprecia- 
tion of his moral obligations." To all this everyone 
will give the heartiest assent. I find myself also in 
full accord with the nature of his dissent from those 
whom he calls the " thinkers of the old school," when 
he says : " I agree heartily with the thinkers of the old 
school in desiring to keep the college course a culture 
course. I differ with them, however, by thinking that 
certain parts of the new sciences contain elements that 
have as great an educational value as that of the old 
studies which they displaced." But it is when he 
attempts to fix these elements of educational values, 
and especially when he tells upon what these values de- 
pend, that he is, in my judgment, at fault. I wish to 
touch first upon the method of teaching a subject as 
determining its educational value ; for unless Professor 
Patten's article is misleading in this regard, he greatly 
underestimates this factor. He may have purposely 
omitted the discussion of this point for want of space ; 
but, if so, he should have warned us. His article leads 
one to think that he considers it of relatively little im- 
portance. 

To be sure, in one or two places in the article, he seems 
to believe that the educational value of a study depends 
upon the way in which it is taught. Yet he lays special 
stress upon content, with the various modifications 
brought in by " the inherited qualities of the college 
student, the life the student is to lead, and the judg- 
ments he must most commonly make, the state of prog- 



A CRITIQUE OF EDUCATIONAL VALUES. 173 

ress of the science — whether inductive, deductive, or 
transitional — , and the character of the premises of the 
science and the confidence the student has in them," 
besides some other minor factors that he does not deem 
of sufficient consequence to mention. He even says, on 
page 110, " All studies are utility studies or culture 
studies, according to the manner in which they are 
taught; " but so much emphasis is laid upon the other 
points mentioned, and so little upon method, that one is 
led to believe that he thinks the manner of teaching to 
be of secondary importance. It is, perhaps, not too 
extreme to say, regarding college studies at least, 
that so far as educational value goes, the manner of 
teaching is of more consequence than the subjects 
taught. It is certainly a fact that a student who devotes 
four years to any one language and to the deductive 
science, physics, alone — if both are taught as they are 
taught by the best professors — will receive more culture, 
in Professor Patten's sense of that word, than he would 
from Professor Patten's ideal curriculum, with its full 
quota of moral sciences, if taught as they have been 
taught in many of our schools and colleges, by the poorer 
teachers. It seems necessary to make this point em- 
phatic — and my difference from Professor Patten's 
opinion here, while, I think, great, is, after all, only 
one of emphasis — because the other view, if it were 
believed, might well lead a teacher to underestimate his 
influence if he happened to be a teacher of some of the 
deductive sciences, and thus encourage poorer teaching 
than we have at present. Moreover, in selecting teachers 
for our colleges and universities, far too little stress is 



174 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

laid upon this qualification of aptness for teaching. It 
would be unfortunate if this tendency were to become 
more marked. It will be seen, too, that this view of the 
importance of the manner of teaching a subject, if the 
right one, leads to entirely diiferent results on other 
points from those reached by Professor Patten. 

We learn from his article that " the educational value 
of a science depends upon the stage of its progress ;" 
and in fact the main contention of the article seems to be 
that we must depend upon the sciences that are in the 
inductive stage — or, better yet, that are in " the transi- 
tional stage from induction to deduction " — if we wish 
to get the best educational results ; because a science 
in that stage best stimulates the self-activity of the 
student, and because also, " the sciences that are in a 
stage of transition have the great men and the enthu- 
siastic teachers." To take up the second reason first, 
I should be willing to agree that only investigators can 
be or are great teachers ; but I can see no reason for 
thinking that when a science has reached the deductive 
stage, i.e., the stage of having a number of general 
principles from which one may reason, it still presents 
no further field for investigation. It may be true that 
investigation will take a different character, and that 
the word investigator will have a somewhat different 
meaning. A man who goes into an unfrequented reg- 
ion, and looks carefully about him, may perhaps discover 
a new species of plant or insect, and such a man may be 
called an investigator ; nevertheless, that kind of inves- 
tigation, if it ends with that, will hardly justify us 
in concluding that the said investigator is to be classed 



A CRITIQUE OF EDUCATIONAL VALUES. 1Y5 

with Charles Darwin, or that he is a great scientist, or 
will be a great teacher. It is possibly true that the 
more completely developed sciences offer a narrower 
field for investigators of that class; but one of the 
excellent qualities of good Mother Nature is that she 
always has new secrets in all fields for man to discover ; 
and it is certainly true that advance in any line simply 
opens up wider vistas of unexplored territory to still 
lure investigators on. If so, why should there not be 
great men and great teachers in all sciences ? Do math- 
ematicians or physicists lack enthusiasm because they 
cannot extend their sciences ? This question of great 
men, too, in any field of research, is one of fact, upon 
which there may be varying opinions. Professor Patten 
considers physics a deductive science now — ergo, there 
should be, relatively speaking, few great men in physics 
to-day, and few great teachers. I have to place in op- 
position to this the opinion of the professor of physics in 
one of our great universities, who expresses himself on 
this subject as follows : " It is true that the names 
most often met with in the study of science are the 
names of workers in the inductive stages of the science, 
because we read principally of the men who have 
established the general principles ; but it is not neces- 
sarily true that these men are the greatest men in that 
particular science. In physics, some of the very 
greatest names are among the men who did not work 
inductively. IsTewton, Cavendish, Maxwell, Sir Wil- 
liam Thomson, Lord Eayleigh, are men among the 
English physicists alone who rank among the first, and 
who, with the exception of Cavendish, are noted for 



176 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

their deductive work almost entirely." Professor Pat- 
ten might say that it was not so much the method of 
work as the degree of development of the science that 
brought about the result. This point is met as follows : 
" The last fifty years can show the greatest list of 
physicists of any like period in the history of the science, 
and it is doubtful if any generation could compare with 
the present in its list of great names in the science. 
True it is that the present generation is much more cele- 
brated for its physicists than chemists." I have not 
at hand the opinion of an expert in mathematics, but 
my own opinion would not be materially different as 
to that science ; and it might be fairly asked — were it 
likely to lead to any definite conclusion — if the great 
names of to-day in physics and mathematics do not 
deserve to be placed on a par with those in biology, or 
even in political economy or history. If we write the 
names of Ilelmholtz and Sylvester with those of Yir- 
chow and Wagner and Ranke — to name none of our 
own great men in any of these lines — he will be a bold 
man who will venture to place one below the others. 
Kather must we agree with Victor Hugo that among 
geniuses all are equal. Even if I were to attempt to 
disprove Professor Patten's contention by an appeal to 
numbers of great men or of great teachers in the dif- 
ferent sciences, we should doubtless find that no one 
could eliminate the personal equation ; we should learn 
that good men were plentiful in all fields, while the 
great men were woefully scarce in all. Each one of us 
knows best the great men in his own special field of 
labor, while because of our familiarity with the subject 



A CRITIQUE OF EDUCATIONAL VALUES. 177 

we can also see best the weaknesses of even the greatest 
men in our own field. And still further, is there not 
much weight in Professor McMurry's question : " Is not 
the great teacher he who, after knowing his subject mat- 
ter well, directs his attention and investigations first of 
all to the relation of this subject matter to the minds of 
his students; whose chief effort is to fit or adapt the 
material to the growing mind in such a way as to make 
it grow strong in the best manner ? " This is certainly 
true in the case of children, and to a great extent in that 
of college students, though with them, in my judgment, 
the teacher should also be a seeker after new truth in 
his own special field of work. 

The more important point, however, and it is per- 
haps the most important one in the whole article, is the 
other one touched upon. Is it true that a science in the 
transitional stage " best stimulates the self-activity of 
the student," and that in consequence a science at that 
stage is best for culture purposes ? From what has al- 
ready been said it is evident that, so far as thoroughly 
trained specialists are concerned, the field of nature is 
broad enough to offer the opportunities for new dis- 
coveries in all departments. So far as college students 
are to be considered — and they are really the ones in 
question here, though I can but suspect that Professor 
Patten has at times forgotten this — one might perhaps 
grant that the possibility of adding something really 
new to the sum of human knowledge, would serve as a 
special stimulus to good work, although I doubt if this 
one thing would ever make an appreciable difference in 
the classroom or laboratory. 
12 



178 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

If this were granted, however, one should ask if this 
added zest may not be given at too great a cost. The 
question is largely one of methods of teaching. I quite 
agree with Professor Patten as to the importance of 
inductive work in science, in language, in history, in 
political economy, in all fields of study. I fail to see, 
however, any reason why physics or grammar may not 
be taught inductively as well as botany or political 
economy ; but, if so, it takes much of the force from his 
argument. He well says that " if a science is taught for 
culture, it must be presented as it was when in a state 
of transition from the inductive to the deductive stage." 
This seems to recognize that it is well to train students 
in inductive reasoning. The subjects are new to the 
students ; it rests with the teacher to lead his pupils to 
develop for themselves the general principles. If the 
science is a fully developed one, the teacher has his choice 
of a large number of principles to be developed, and may 
select them in the order best suited to the development 
of the pupil, without in any way lessening the real drill 
that the students will get from making their own 
generalizations. One may well doubt the advisability 
of attempting to develop with pupils of college grade a 
generalization that the teacher has not yet made for 
himself, a process which Professor Patten would make 
the regular one. The loss from time wasted in fruitless 
effort — fruitless, because the pupils would not merely 
fail of results that would help the cause of science, but 
because they would also be led into discouragements and 
loose habits of work — would be more than the gain in 
added inspiration from the hope, a rather forlorn one, 



A CRITIQUE OF EDUCATIONAL VALUES. 179 

of the possible discovery of some new law. For ad- 
vanced university students, who have already had their 
powers well developed by a thorough, carefully planned 
course of inductive work under a trained teacher who 
had been over the whole field before them, the case might 
well be different. It should be borne in mind, however, 
that our college students are mere tyros in science, and 
have as yet, most of them, had very little practice in 
really scientific work in any line. 

One can but feel in reading his article that Prof- 
essor Patten has seen some good teaching in political 
economy — his own students would doubtless testify to 
the truth of this supposition — but some very poor teach- 
ing in geometry and physics. He is certainly unjust 
toward much of the work that is done in our schools and 
colleges. He says that geometry " is always presented 
in its present complete form." He thinks that it would 
be better if the student had occasionally to supply a 
missing proposition, and asks : " Would not the effort 
of the student in endeavoring to supply this missing 
linlc be of much greater educational value to him than 
the learning of a dozen propositions demonstrated in full 
in his book ? " Of course ; but as long ago as when I was 
in college, the work in geometry that we did there was 
nearly all of the kind that he suggests ; the days of learn- 
ing by rote fully demonstrated propositions had already 
gone by, in that college at least, and now one seldom 
finds such methods even in our high schools. Our 
later text-books are prepared with reference to leading 
the pupils on to what is for them really original work, 
as much so as any done by Euclid himself; and a visit 



180 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

to many classes in geometry would readily convince one 
that if Greek boys in the days of Plato studied geometry 
with more enthusiasm than do ours, the subject must 
have been enchanting. Political economy and the moral 
sciences in general may be good to develop habits of 
inductive reasoning. Surely no one believes that more 
firmly than I do ; and yet I have seen teachers of politi- 
cal economy whose pupils were unable to get any drill 
of that kind, and who found it a " dismal science " 
indeed. The teacher was at fault, not the subject. 

Let me quote again from the professor of physics 
before cited, Professor Sanford, of the Leland Stanford 
Jr., University, whom, as an advanced teacher of the 
later days who believes that college students should be 
taught for culture, not merely for utility, I asked to 
outline for me briefly his aims and methods in teaching 
physics. He says : 

" There are very many possible lines of mental and 
moral training to be had from the study of physics. In 
general, I attempt to outline my work so that the pupils 
will reason from concrete examples to general principles, 
then deduce other concrete examples from these gen- 
eralizations, and test their deductions by experiment. 
To take a single example. I wish my pupils to study 
the pendulum. I select the law of the relation of the 
length to the time of vibration, as one generalization 
which I wish developed. Suppose I ask the following 
questions : ' How long will it take a pendulum two feet 
long to make ten vibrations ? one one foot long ? one six 
inches long ? ' etc. After a number of experiments of 
this kind, I ask them to tabulate their results and state 



A CRITIQUE OF EDUCATIONAL VALUES. IgJ 

the law. Then thej are given tasks to do and confirm 
by experiments ; e. g.: ' Make a pendulum that will 
vibrate three times in tv/o seconds,' etc. This seems to 
me to cover the whole range of reasoning. We have, 
first, induction ; second, hypothesis ; third, deduction 
from this hypothesis ; and fourth, testing this deduction, 
and with it the hypothesis, by experiment. My aim, so 
far as mental training ia concerned, is to give practice in 
this whole process. Every generalization in physics 
can be used to give just this kind of training. Later 
these general principles may themselves become the in- 
ductive series for a higher generalization, and the 
hypothesis thus formed may be used as the major prem- 
ise in another deduction, this deduction tested experi- 
mentally, etc. This seems to me to cover the whole 
ground. It cannot be covered, in this way, by a science 
which is yet in its inductive stages." 

Did Archimedes or Galileo get any better training 
from their study of physics than do young men of to-day 
from this, now deductive, science, if it is taught in the 
way here suggested ? Does it not rather seem clear that 
the more nearly complete the science becomes, the better 
adapted it is for such thorough training work? As to 
the interest such work arouses, I have seen students in 
high schools from preference spend a good part of their 
play-time in the laboratory. They were hungering for 
knowledge of the laws of physics, and their teacher saw 
to it that they got the knowledge by working it out 
for themselves. 

It seems also clear that political economy, for ex- 
ample, could not now — and never can — give training in 



182 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

the whole process of reasoning in this way ; though, as I 
believe, the subject has other advantages that, with an 
equally good teacher, fully counterbalance this. Good 
teachers of other sciences will so plan their work as to 
give good results for culture; while poor teachers of 
even the moral sciences will make of their subjects mere 
drudgery from which little culture can be derived. 
Witness a good part of the teaching in history and 
political economy that our schools and colleges all over 
the country have suffered under. It is encouraging to 
note that there is a genuine reaction in favor of a more 
careful study of the principles of teaching, that has 
already produced good results and is destined to do even 
more in the near future. 

It is fair, however, to consider the relative values 
of, for example, political economy and physics, to give 
training in inductive reasoning or in the various kinds 
of reasoning already mentioned, when taught with equal 
skill with that purpose in view. For such a question 
the answer has already been given above in good part. 
In physics, the promises can be controlled almost abso- 
lutely, nearly enough for practical purposes, without any 
process of assuming a condition of affairs that is not 
known or may not be in fact produced. The premises 
may be simple ones or a simple series, as in the example 
given above, or may be made of great complexity, at the 
will of the teacher, who can adapt his work to the needs 
of the class. 

In political economy all the problems involve many 
complex and even variable premises. ]^o problem 
can be made simple, unless it assumes conditions not 



A CRITIQUE OF EDUCATIONAL VALUES. 183 

found in society unmingled with other factors. So 
far as this one fact is concerned, it would seem that 
physics is to be preferred ; but this brings me to the 
next most important point in Professor Patten's article, 
the one relating to the character of the premises used in 
the different sciences. I have much sympathy with the 
stand taken by him regarding this point, for it is one 
that I have often used in discussions with teachers of 
the natural sciences over the educational value of their 
special subjects. And yet, in part as a result of such 
discussions, I can but feel that Professor Patten has too 
narrow a view of the question. " The habit of using 
premises which the student does not question," said he, 
" creates a dogmatic spirit. It dwarfs his mind by 
confining him to that form of logic which deals only 
with relations of premises to the conclusions. Such 
reasoning excites little interest or activity." And 
again, with much force, " The study of premises, how- 
ever, is a study of mankind and of the laws of thinking, 
and is a necessary condition to good reasoning upon 
practical subjects. The same premise has a different 
degree of force upon minds in different stages of devel- 
opment and in different social environments. To ques- 
tion the premises from which one reasons, opens up the 
broadest problems of psychology, and forces one to ex- 
amine into the complicated phenomena of the society in 
which one lives. The feeling, therefore, that his prem- 
ises are open to discussion, gives the student much 
greater incentive to accurate thinking than he would 
have if he were studying a science with axiomatic prem- 
ises." And still again, " If a good professional man is 



184 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

wanted, let him study deductive sciences with unques- 
tioned premises, but beware of praising the same course 
of study for the culture it gives." Now it is doubtless 
true that a very large proportion of the judgments that 
we have to make in our social, and even in our business 
life, are these moral judgments based on premises that 
are uncertain, and that have also to be critically con- 
sidered; and it is well for our young people to have 
much practice in making such judgments under the over- 
sight of a cool-headed, careful teacher, who will show 
them how likely one is to err in such matters, and how 
modest and conservative one should always be. 

But here again we come to the consideration of the 
personal qualifications of the individual teacher. Where 
it is impossible to bring one's opinions to the test of ac- 
curate measurement, where one's judgment is after all a 
matter of opinion, it is hard to convince the fool that he 
is not a wise man. It is in just this field of infinite de- 
bate that we find the most foolish dogmatism. Let me 
mention as proof the attitude of many political econom- 
ists, many so-called statesmen, nearly the entire popula- 
tion when it comes to a question of practical politics, or 
perhaps even worse, when the question is one of practical 
religion. Young people often differ in judgment on a 
question of natural science ; but a measuring-rod or a 
balance, a microscope or a retort, forbids them to dog- 
matize. It is an easy matter for a teacher of science 
who has a; conceited, stubborn pupil with a wrong 
idea that he is tenaciously holding, to refer him to a 
simple experiment and let Nature, who has no nonsense 
in her methods of working, show him his foolishness. 
I have known teachers of science more than once to 



A CRITIQUE OF EDUCATIONAL VALUES. 185 

teach in this way at least an apparent modesty to 
boys who were disposed to be dogmatic. But when 
the question is one of literary taste, or a complicated 
social one, like that of pauperism, or an economic 
one like that of protection, if you please, much 
more judgment and skill are required in the teacher. 
The pupil's opinion can be controverted only by argu- 
ment, and that combined with wise handling of his 
individual prejudices. If he does not absorb from his 
teacher's own wise spirit the habit of tolerance, it can- 
not be forced upon him, as in the natural sciences. The 
only test is that of a majority vote of those who are 
called authorities ; and he has clearly a right to his own 
opinion as against these. The teacher may say, as I 
knew one college professor to do : " Do callow youths 
like you venture to set up your judgment in literary 
matters in opposition to that of your text-book author, 
a recognized authority in literature ? " but such a ques- 
tion is not likely to discourage dogmatism in pupils. 
As a matter of fact, many of the college students of even 
our day take the opinion of their professors in political 
economy and history and literature without any further 
question; and nothing could more surely lead to dog- 
matism. Of course, I am not forgetting that many 
teachers are too wise to permit their pupils to adopt 
opinions that they have not clearly thought out for 
themselves, and that some pupils learn fully to appre- 
ciate the many sources of error in reasoning on social 
questions ; but it still remains true that more skill in 
the teacher is required to prevent pupils from falling 
into dogmatic ways, when the subject taught is one in 



186 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

which the conclusion of the student cannot "be put to an 
absolute test of experiment or proof. Tho the ques- 
tion is not raised in Professor Patten's article, I still 
wish to call attention to President Walker's vigorous 
comparison of the moral effects of the two classes of sub- 
jects in the October number of the Review. I cannot 
but think that with first-class teachers in both lines, the 
philosophical studies would not only not appear to a dis- 
advantage in the comparison, but rather the reverse. 
With poor teachers in both, I fully agree with President 
Walker. 

Professor Patten is right in dwelling upon the ad- 
vantages that arise from the study of the complex 
premises found in social questions of all kinds. As has 
been seen, I think that he is wrong in thinking that in 
themselves they check the spirit of dogmatism. I doubt 
also if they lead to more " accurate thinking," as he 
suggests, than do subjects with what he calls " axiomatic 
premises." 

W^e need further to ask — thinking about what ? The 
economist probably reasons more accurately on social 
questions than does the physicist, not because his habits 
of thinking are better, but because he is more familiar 
with his premises. On questions of physics, we should 
find the physicist the more accurate reasoner, even 
where the problem were well within the comprehension 
of the economist, and from the same reason. As to 
which will train to more accurate habits — while from 
the habit of dealing with complicated premises, the 
economists will possibly more often ask: Is there any 
other possible factor ? before he sees proof of it, still 



A CRITIQUE OF EDUCATIONAL VALUES. 187 

this is not all that is needed for accurate reasoning. 
You must also be sure of your premises, and in physics, 
no result of value can ever be reached without careful 
measurement and accurate knowledge of these premises. 
You are always informed when you have been care- 
less regarding your knowledge of premises; Nature 
never forgets to call you to account. On the other 
hand, while you are equally sure to get wrong results 
in political economy if your knowledge of your prem- 
ises is faulty, you may never find it out. Think of 
the economists whose errors may not be discovered 
for generations after they have ceased to reason. So 
far as " accurate thinking " is concerned, the economists 
might well sigh for kindly but severe Nature to set them 
on the track of their errors, as she does the physicists. 

The advantages that the social sciences as culture 
studies possess over physics, astronomy, etc., are not, 
in my judgment, those that have been cited by Professor 
Patten. It is not that they are inductive or transi- 
tional, nor that they train better to " accurate thinking " 
because of their complexity. Professor Patten touches 
it more nearly when he says as quoted : " The study of 
premises is a study of mankind," etc. Not the study 
of all premises was in his mind when he wrote that and 
added, " To question the premises from which one 
reasons opens up the broadest questions of psychology 
and forces one to examine into the complicated phe- 
nomena of the society in which one lives," but the study 
of the premises found in social problems. The knowl- 
edge of these subjects is that which comes nearest to our 
hearts and lives, is that which makes us or may make us 



188 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

■useful or injurious to ourselves and to society; and the 
dealing with such subjects tends especially to broaden 
our sympathies and show us how to deal wisely and 
charitably with our fellow-men. 

Given two boys of equal ability with equally skilled 
teachers, one of whom becomes a physicist with electric- 
ity a specialty, the other an economist with pauperism 
and crime his specialty, I should not expect to see the 
latter become the more accurate reasoner, nor the more 
honest and truth-loving, generally speaking. Qtiite 
possibly he would do no more for the poor in the long 
run than the other by his inventions would do indirectly ; 
but I should expect to see him a man of more sensitive, 
though better-tempered feeling for the sufferings of 
others, and one also whose knowledge would keep him 
from much unwise action in social matters into which 
the physicist might well be led. I should expect to find 
him a man better fitted to meet and manage wisely social 
evils, or for that matter, an excited crowd (if he had 
studied his subject at first hand, as he should), and one 
to whom legislators and philanthropists would more 
readily turn. He might do society no more good than 
the other; but the good that he did would probably be 
more direct and more readily seen. Surely these ad- 
vantages of a moral nature in educational value may be 
granted to the social sciences. So, too, the moral 
sciences, including history, language and literature, are 
doubtless better adapted for training the imagination 
along special lines, for cultivating the aesthetic tastes, 
and for inspiring a love for the beautiful and good in 
literature and art, than are the natural sciences. They 



A CRITIQUE OF EDUCATIONAL VALUES. 189 

are better for many purposes ; but we need both classes 
of studies for culture as well as for civilization, and our 
colleges should have both fully represented in their 
curricula. 

In one of the latest paragraphs of his article Pro- 
fessor Patten, I conjecture, does not intend to be taken 
quite literally. He says : " The college course must 
select only those problems in each science that have a 
high educational value, and study them for this value, 
and not for their utility as parts of a connected whole. 
In this way all the sciences can have an adequate repre- 
sentation in the college curriculum without that crowd- 
ing which at present is so much to be regretted." The 
expression " all the sciences " is very comprehensive, 
and even if we were to take it in the narrow meaning of 
all those sciences which are commonly represented in 
our colleges and universities, we shall still find it too 
broad. I wish to state again my agreement with Pro- 
fessor Patten's desire to teach science with reference to 
its culture value, and, where the distinction can be made, 
to omit the parts or problems that do not tend directly 
toward culture. But if I do not misunderstand the 
spirit of the passage just quoted, I must still dissent 
emphatically. It has seemed to many teachers of late 
years that the short courses in many subjects taught in 
our colleges — whatever the purpose may have been — 
are, relatively speaking, of little value for mental culture 
from their very shortness. Of what use for culture, 
relatively speaking, is a course in botany, or physics, 
or history, or German, or Greek, or political economy, 
if it lasts only twelve weeks, compared with one of two 



190 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

or three years ? I do not wish to be understood as say- 
ing that we should have no short courses in our colleges. 
I think there is culture in even a little knowledge, and 
that it is desirable to know at least a little of many 
things. Furthermore, if one has a thorough understand- 
ing of some one subject, a good teacher can give him a 
fair idea of the general nature of another subject in a 
short course. But if I may quote again from Professor 
Patten's own admirable words on educational values, I 
would say that a twelve weeks' course, however wisely 
the problems may be selected, can give one very little 
of the " faculty to do other work of a like character," 
very little " added confidence in his intellect," very 
little " keener appreciation of his moral obligations," or, 
to quote again Professor McMurry, very little " lively, 
permanent interest in the subject " — a very important 
matter for culture. Not merely discipline is needed, 
but also mental activity, and only permanent interest 
in some subject will develop this. Here, too, may be 
mentioned President Walker's happy citation of law, 
medical, and engineering students, as showing more 
interest, and hence giving more attention and earnest- 
ness to their work. The educational value of this must 
not be underestimated. To get any of these effects in 
any noteworthy degree, one needs to devote a good deal 
of time to some one specific subject ; not with the idea 
of making one's self an expert workman for pecuniary 
ends — for I should omit the topics that had no special 
developing power, if they are to be found — but because 
every science begins with the alphabet, so to speak, in 
the learning of which for every college student there is 



A CRITIQUE OF EDUCATIONAL VALUES. 191 

relatively little training of the judgment, and because 
the best training and the greatest interest come after the 
student begins to feel in some slight degree the sense of 
mastery and confidence in his own power to go ahead 
independently. These beginnings, which I have called 
the alphabet, of course differ much in character and 
importance in the different sciences. In one it is the 
technique of the microscope, in another the mere hand- 
ling of the laboratory apparatus, in a third the clearing 
up of definitions, etc. 

The old classical curriculum was, after all, formed 
largely on the right plan. There the classics were so 
studied that, if they were even fairly taught, the 
student began to get the best of discipline from them. 
The same thing is true of mathematics. And the two 
subjects were so diverse in character that the mental 
discipline was of a fairly diversified kind. The weak 
point in it was that it did not recognize the differences 
in individual aptitudes; and this, too, is the weak 
point at bottom of Professor Patten's plan. He seems 
to overestimate relatively the value of inductive reason- 
ing along certain lines, as if all students needed the 
same thing. Each student needs for his mental de- 
velopment a thorough course of training in some one 
line, continued until he has learned to know what it is to 
do some really thorough work on his own account. I 
omit here any special consideration of studies that are 
especially tools, such as language, elementary mathe- 
matics, etc., that all students must have before they can 
do thorough, independent work in anything. Until that 
stage of independent work is reached, the " budding 



192 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

man," to use Professor Patten's expression, has not yet 
bloomed. He is not yet in a condition to bear fruit. 
He need not have become a specialist in the sense of 
having set ont on a life career, as is implied in the 
professional and purely university work; but he must 
have learned how to handle himself in some independent 
work, or he is not yet a man, and has not yet reached the 
development that is or ought to be implied in a college 
bachelor's degree, nor has he the permanent interest in 
intellectual work that is essential to mental activity, 
thoughtfulness, growth. 

The old classical course gave this power to all those 
whose natural aptitudes led them toward language, or 
mathematics, or grammar. They were able to do in- 
dependent work in any of these lines. The students 
whose natural aptitudes were of another kind fared 
badly. Let us frankly recognize the fact that the old 
course was an admirably planned course, in the main 
of the modern kind, for those who wished to develop 
their powers along the line of classical study. It is 
an excellent special course ; but it is a special course 
in language, and no more of a general culture course 
than one planned with literature or physics as its back- 
bone, though possibly the former is adapted to the needs 
of a greater number of students than the latter would be. 
The modern curriculum differs from the classical, not 
in picking out small parts from all the studies — for 
even if we were to try to do that by selecting the cul- 
ture parts, as Professor Patten suggests, we should 
find it an impossibility to give thorough culture, unless 
we left enough of some one of them to give a student the 



A CRITIQUE OF EDUCATIONAL VALUES. 193 

power of going ahead independently in that line, and 
this requires years of work — but in so arranging the cur- 
riculum that the student may obtain this special drill in 
the line of his aptitudes ; so that from it he will get the 
best culture. One cannot be master of himself until 
he is nearly enough master of some one subject, be it 
theology or Greek, physics or political economy, car- 
pentry or blacksmithing, or mule-driving, to work in it 
to some advantage without a master. The sense of self- 
mastery does not come without this sense of independent 
power in work. 

Again without fairly thorough knowledge of some one 
subject, that essential element in all culture, that almost 
indispensable condition of successful growth, the power 
to get a definite outline for one's own ignorance is want- 
ing. Until one has a good knowledge of some one sub- 
ject, he has no conception of the extent of his ignorance 
on others. A smattering of many subjects is apt to 
lead one to think that he has a fairly complete knowl- 
edge of all. The graduates of many of our " mush- 
room normals " of the West, who have " finished " 
zoology, botany, political economy, etc., are pitiful 
examples of the effect of courses that fail to give a 
fairly thorough mastery of some one subject, although 
bad teaching is partly responsible for this result. 

The general effect of Professor Patten's article is to 
lead one to think that he has a too narrow conception of 
the meaning of that somewhat indefinite word culture, 
though his verbal definition of it seems broad enough. 
The insistence upon the inductive studies, upon the 
moral sciences, etc., leads one to believe that in his mind 
13 



194 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

culture means the same thing for all persons ; and especi- 
ally, so far as intellectual processes are concerned, does 
it mean for him the power to reason inductively and 
with accurate judgment regarding the real nature of 
social conditions. Ought we not to recognize more fully 
the great variety of human gifts and aptitudes, the great 
range of human interests ? After the man has gained 
the one or two essential moral qualities that belong to all 
true manhood and womanhood as such, especially that 
quality that Lowell fitly calls " the brave old wisdom of 
sincerity," and the kindliness of nature that leads to true 
courtesy — no one can pretend to culture in a complete 
sense, with the needs of society as our criterion, who has 
not these qualities — what more shall we ask, except that 
he have trained and developed the natural powers that 
he possesses, whatever these may be. Culture is not a 
matter of knowledge, but of development; and as one 
man has one gift, while another has a vastly different 
one, culture is as varied as human nature. I write as a 
teacher and student of social science, not with reference 
to the opinions of the " Four Hundred " regarding cul- 
ture. 

Recognizing this principle, we need to be much 
more guarded in our estimate of the relative educational 
values of the different studies. One study will have a 
great educational value for one student, while the same 
study, taught in the same way by the same teacher, will 
have a much smaller educational value for another. 
Professor Patten has recognized this principle in part 
in what he has to say regarding the " inherited qualities 
of the college student ; " but I think that all teachers of 



A CRITIQUE OF EDUCATIONAL VALUES. 195 

mathematics will agree that not all pupils have inherited 
any great aptness for mathematics, while it is equally 
certain that some of them have this aptitude. For one, 
this study might have little educational value ; for an- 
other, the greatest. I pass by the question whether a 
student should study that which is easy for him or that 
which is difficult. Either answer fits this argument. 
Educational values, then, may not be estimated with 
any degree of accuracy without reference to both the 
manner of teaching and the individual aptitude of the 
student. The ideal college curriculum would be, not a 
fixed one, but one that could be fitted to the varying 
needs of the individual students, so that each one could 
best bring out what is in him. I wish to be understood 
broadly. While colleges are especially to give intel- 
lectual culture, we may with propriety extend the word 
to include development in other lines. If a man has 
but little aptitude for book-learning or scholarship in 
any line, as we commonly use the word, but has a gift 
for wood-craft or horse-training, and has developed his 
powers to the best advantage, so that he is doing society 
the best of which he is capable, I see no reason why he 
should not have this culture recognized. If he has the 
sincerity and courtesy that I spoke of before as evidence 
of moral training, I do not know why he is not the equal 
in culture of the man who has spent the same time and 
mental energy and who has attained the same degree of 
development in mathematics. 

The college curriculum should include first those 
studies that seem best fitted to the mental development 
of the greatest number that will take advantage of 



196 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

them, and should then be extended as far to suit the 
needs of lesser numbers as the means of the institu- 
tion will permit. I know of no reason why it should 
stop short of teaching those whose best life-work lies 
in horse-training to develop their skill, their powers, 
their natural endowments in this direction in the 
best possible way, provided the means hold out. Let 
me not be misunderstood as advocating technical 
courses for merely technical purposes in a college 
curriculum. I simply mean to make it clear that the 
diversity of human nature should be recognized as 
far as is practicable in our college courses, in order 
that to each student may be given the best culture 
that he is capable of receiving. Further than that, 
let us recognize the fact that the educational value 
of any study is only relative ; that no study or 
series of studies is adapted to all, but that the most 
that we can say is, that if this study is taught in 
such a way, it is adapted to develop certain named 
qualities in a student. If then an individual student 
needs such a development, let him take this study ; but 
if he needs another development, give him another sub- 
ject suited to his needs. Or, in many cases, it will be 
sufficient to have the same subject taught in different 
ways to meet different needs. But, let me repeat, the 
purpose of it all is the best development that each stu- 
dent as an individual is capable of receiving. 

So, too, we cannot well speak absolutely of quantity of 
educational values, but rather of the kind of educational 
value. We may not say geometry has more educational 
value than political economy, or vice versa; though we 



A CRITIQUE OF EDUCATIONAL VALUES. 197 

may saj geometry is better adapted for training in ac- 
curate deductive reasoning perhaps. This might lead 
us to say also, in a specific case, that geometry has 
more educational value for this boy than political econ- 
omy; while at the same time, we should probably be 
comjDelled to say of another boy in the same college 
that political economy has more educational value for 
him than has geometry. Again, when we have studied 
college students with especial reference to the kind 
rather than the amount of development that they need, 
we may say this study has more educational value 
for American students as a whole, because more of 
them need it, than has that study. Our college curricula, 
then, will first offer facilities for those studies that will, 
on this basis, as was intimated before, meet the needs of 
most students. When means are small, if college officers 
are wise, they will not try to offer a little of everything, 
but, in addition to the elementary courses that all must 
have, they will endeavor to make thorough those one or 
two courses that in their territory are likely to do the 
most good. Students that need different training should 
go to another college that is offering some other specially 
strong course in the line of their needs, or to a large 
wealthy one that offers many such courses. 

Though the reasons for my opinion are materially 
different from those given by Professor Patten, as has 
been shown, I still expect to see a somewhat similar evo- 
lution of the college curriculum, yet with an important 
difference. The difference lies in this, that instead of 
" the college course " with the moral sciences occupy- 
ing a " prominent and perhaps a dominant place," I 



198 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

should rather speak of co-ordinated college courses, in 
more of which the social sciences will have a promi- 
nent, and often even the dominant part than in the 
courses of the past. I should not say with him, " Com- 
plete courses, making the student a master of what 
he studies, must be given only in graduate work," un- 
less by " complete course " is meant a specialty which 
one expects to make his life-work, and not then if it 
be one that has equal value in developing the stu- 
dent's powers. I rather believe, for the reasons already 
given, that every college degree should signify that 
its holder has had in at least one subject a training 
so thorough and complete as to arouse in him a perma- 
nent interest and make him capable of going ahead into 
independent work in that line with a reasonable degree 
of certainty that fruitful results will follow. 

I agree with him that the social sciences form, for 
many, and an increasing number, " an ideal group." 
While mathematics, the languages, and the natural 
sciences will always have their place, and that a large 
one, in the college curriculum, I think that as society in- 
creases in complexity, and also in refinement and right- 
eousness, many more students than at present will find 
their delight and their development in the study of 
those social sciences that deal, perhaps, more directly 
with all that is highest and best in man and society. 



VIII. 

POLICY OF THE STATE TOWAKD 
EDUCATION.* 

" No one will doubt that the legislator should direct his atten- 
tion above all to the education of youth, or that the neglect of 
education does harm to states. The citizen should be moulded to 
suit the form of government under which he lives." — Aristotle. 

Some little time ago we had the pleasure at Cornell 
university of listening to an address by Mr. Booker T. 
Washington, principal of the Tuskegee industrial insti- 
tute in Alabama. Mr. Washington is perhaps doing 
more for the education of the colored people and the 
development of industrial interests at the South than 
any other man in the country. He is one of the 
great educators. He told us that when colored young 
men and women had come to his school, and were sur- 
rounded by its influences for a year or two, learning 
what it was to be clean and to respect cleanliness and 
decency, their lives were so changed that they influenced 
others. When these graduates went back to their own 
home districts where there were often nothing but one- 
room cabins — large families living in this one room — 
where all members of the community were deeply in 

* Impromptu discussion at University Convocation, Albany, 
July 5 1894. 

199 



200 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

debt and oppressed by the mortgage system that claimed 
their crops before they were grown, the conditions 
seemed so desperate that nothing apparently could re- 
generate them. Yet frequently one girl school-teacher, 
preaching cleanliness by example and precept through 
the year, encouraging the poor negroes to pay off their 
mortgages as rapidly as they could and to build two- 
room cottages, would succeed in three or four years in 
transforming the whole community. 

The problem was simply this : to put better ideals 
into the minds of the negroes, to raise their standard of 
life. The economic problem that is involved in the rail- 
road strike that is on to-day in the West is also a ques- 
tion of the standard of life, and of the elevation of that 
standard among the working people of the country. 
There is practically unanimous agreement among lead- 
ing economists of this country and of the old world, that 
the one influence, which more than anything else tends 
to raise the wages of labor and to harmonize the differ- 
ent classes of society is the elevation of the standard of 
life. When children in the JSTorthern states have spent 
half their time for 200 days in the year in clean school 
buildings surrounded by the elevating influence of in- 
telligent teachers ; when they are taught that there is 
something better than gaining a few cents or a few dol- 
lars to spend for gratification of sensuous appetite; 
when they have been trained in this way for eight or 
ten years for half the days in the year, they do not for- 
get the influence of these lessons afterward when they 
become wage-earning men and women, though the spe- 
cific bits of information may have been forgotten. They 



POLICY OF THE STATE TOWARD EDUCATION. 201 

will not feel that the wages they earn must go for the 
gratification of the lower appetites ; but they will have 
the higher and better ideals that will enable them to 
spend their money more wisely, to elevate their stand- 
ard of life and consequently to raise their wages as they 
ought to be raised. 

More than any other one influence toward bringing 
about harmony in the economic conditions of society is 
bound to be the elevation of the standard of living ; and 
the opinion of President Andrews of Brown university 
for one, as well as that of many other thinkers, is that no 
other one influence in this country can be so powerful to- 
ward raising the standard of life as are the common 
schools. It has just been said that the faults in our com- 
mon schools at present are due very largely, almost 
solely, perhaps, to the standard of life or to the standard 
of education held by the patrons of our common schools. 
What the common schools ought to be in order to raise 
this standard, the patrons of our common schools will 
find out better from the high schools and the colleges 
than in any other way. All our country communities 
need the elevation that comes from graduates of col- 
leges and higher schools. 

But another influence, and an influence that teaches 
much more directly politics and the principles which 
lead to improvement, economic and political, may come 
in part from the teaching in the common schools, though 
more particularly from the teaching of the higher 
schools. What we need in our voters, and in all our 
citizens, more than any other one mental habit at the 
present day is the spirit of thoughtfulness, the habit of 



202 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

independent judgment. Pupils in our common schools 
of primary grade, because of their youth cannot be 
taught to any very great extent to reason, to think and 
to judge independently. Their work in the schools 
must of necessity be the gaining of information, the get- 
ting of tools for their later work ; but the chief business 
of both high schools and colleges is to teach students to 
think, to be independent, to judge for themselves on 
questions of the day and to act as their good judgment 
dictates. 

I might speak especially of the teaching of political 
economy that was referred to so particularly this morn- 
ing by the chancellor, and to the teaching of politics in 
our colleges; but personally I regard that as almost a 
secondary consideration. If a man brings to the study 
of political questions an independent, critical, honest 
mind, he will look at them fairly and squarely, judge 
them independently and vote accordingly. 

I have often asked politicians, students and thought- 
ful men in the community, what proportion of our 
voters act independently — I do not mean independent 
of political parties — , what proportion act thought- 
fully, what proportion think over the issues of the day 
and vote in accordance with their own best judgment in- 
stead of being swept along simply by party passions, or 
by getting their political views from their parents or 
their associates ? You can answer the question for your- 
selves. In most cases I have had the answer that not 
ten per cent act independently in voting on the questions 
of the day. 

We inherit our politics. We gather our politics from 



POLICY OF THE STATE TOWARD EDUCATION. 203 

our associations, or are forced into them by the necessi- 
ties of the case, owing to our strict party organizations. 
If our higher schools develop independent characters, 
they will do much toward solving our political ques- 
tions. Please understand that I am not advocating mug- 
wumpism in distinction from party allegiance. I be- 
lieve that we need political parties and that the greater 
part of our voters will find it best to belong to a politi- 
cal party and to act in accordance with this party; but 
it is also best that our politicians (all of us voters, 
because we ought all to be politicians) should do the 
thinking for our parties instead of letting the parties 
do our thinking for us. When the newspapers and 
leaders of public opinion in the communities cease to 
do all the thinking for the parties, and the individual 
voters do their share, we shall have less trouble with our 
politics. 

Our politicians also, many of whom are not college 
men, should study economics and the science of politics 
somewhat more than they now do. For example, it is 
the opinion of all thinkers on the subject that there 
could hardly be more unjust tax laws than those of this 
country ; and this is simply one example. If one reads 
the debates and discussions on the economic and politi- 
cal questions of the day as they are found in the reports 
of Congress and of our state legislatures, he will likely 
come to the opinion that our legislators are partisans 
first, patriots second, and economists and thinking men 
last. Our politicians are not to blame for this. We are 
to blame for it ourselves. It is the citizens who force 
our legislators to become partisans first and statesmen 



204 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

second. When we become independent enough in our 
judgment to let ourselves be swayed by thought instead 
of by partisan feeling, our legislators will be only too 
glad to do as we would like to have them in that respect. 
We ourselves are, or should be, the dictators. And we 
should use our schools to make thoughtful citizens. 

The question has been discussed whether it is right or 
wise for the state to support universities. It is asked, 
too, whether it is American to support universities, or 
whether such support is paternalism. To one who has 
received all his schooling from public elementary and 
high schools and state universities, the question seems 
absurd. It seems almost ridiculous that in the state of 
New York it should be necessary to discuss this question 
at all. If we who are the state are unwilling in our 
corporate capacity to support state universities, we must 
rely on public spirited men to endow universities for us. 
It is a good thing, of course, when such men as Vassar, 
Cornell and others are willing freely to grant the privi- 
lege of higher education to our citizens. When they do 
this freely we cheerfully and gladly accept the gifts; 
but when we put ourselves in a position to depend on 
such men, when we go begging for such gifts, then we 
are paupers — and better paternalism than pauperism. 

But yet is it paternalism for the state to support uni- 
versities or the higher schools ? Do not we the citizens 
compose the state ? It is certainly the theory of demo- 
cratic government that we do ; practically I am inclined 
to think in many cases we do not. At any rate, we do 
not feel, as we ought, that the state is ours. When we 
think of the state we think of it as at Washington or 



POLICY OF THE STATE TOWARD EDUCATION. 205 

Albany. We do not feel that state institutions belong to 
us personally. And yet there are some people who do 
feel that way, certain officials who have gifts of the 
state to grant their partisans, to the men who helped 
them, get office. Those men feel that the state belongs to 
them ; and we let it belong to them instead of making it 
belong to ourselves as it should, instead of taking it and 
keeping it for ourselves as citizens where it of right be- 
longs. 

If we were to make a better and larger use of the 
state, if we were to get more benefit personally from the 
state through our schools and other public means, we 
should feel closer to the state and the state would be 
closer to us. We should take better care that state 
affairs were managed as they should be. This may 
sound socialistic; it depends on what you mean by so- 
cialism. The idea of socialism as set out by many social- 
istic writers seems to me absurd. The idea that by any 
system of legislation we can immediately modify and 
materially improve the form of society so as really to 
change its nature and effects, is absurd on the face of it. 
The forces that move society are as sluggish as changes 
of habit, often hidden from all but the keenest of think- 
ing observers. The development of society must be a 
matter of the slowest growth, and we cannot expect by 
any system of legislation very materially to modify the 
form of society as it is at the present day. We may do 
something by laws to set at work influences that will 
slightly modify people's opinions and the economic con- 
ditions of society; and that w^ill possibly determine in 
part the distribution of wealth. Such things as that 



206 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

we may do, but to pass a law at present to put society on 
a socialistic basis would be absurd ; for such a law to suc- 
ceed would be impossible. 

But we ought not to be afraid to use the powers of 
the state for the benefit of the citizens, so as to enable 
them, as Aristotle says, " Not merely to live, but to 
live well ; " and if we freely and fearlessly do what we 
can toward supporting our higher institutions of learn- 
ing and through them toward developing the spirit of in- 
dependence, the spirit of thoughtfulness and responsi- 
bility, we shall do something that will benefit not merely 
ourselves, but our posterity and the people of other 
nations as well. 



IX. 

SCHOOL-BOOK LEGISLATIOK* 

" That education should be regulated by law and should be an 
affair of state is not to be denied, but what should be the char- 
acter of this public education and how young persons should 
be educated are questions which remain to be considered." — 
Aristotle. 

In the discussion of matters of public policy that may 
demand legislation, it is usually necessary to consider 
not merely what may be for the best good of the state, 
but also what may be possible under the relations ex- 
isting between the chief political parties. Now in no 
state in the Union has partisan feeling in politics more 
to do with legislation than in Indiana. For this reason, 
an account of circumstances attending the drafting 
and passage of the text-book bill in Indiana may serve as 
a useful introduction to a study of the legislation that 
may be desirable in other states. We need to know the 
motives that influence legislators in practice, before we 
can tell what bill will be a wise one to put before any 
given legislature. 

For some two or three sessions previous to that of 
1889, certain members of the legislature, believing that 
the school text-books were costing more than was neces- 
sary, and that a more nearly uniform series was de- 

* Political Science Quarterly, March, 1891. 
207 



208 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

sirable, had introduced bills looking^ toward improve- 
ment in these respects. However, there was little public 
interest in the subject, and other matters of legislation, 
particularly those of a partisan nature, were given the 
precedence, so that practically nothing was accom- 
plished. Only the good of the schools was at stake ; and 
school children and teachers have little political in- 
fluence. If a body of legislators is to be thoroughly 
aroused, some subject is desirable that will stir the im- 
agination, that will furnish opportunity for striking 
metaphors, and that will appeal to the pockets of the 
constituencies. How to secure prompt action on the 
text-book question was, under the circumstances, a 
problem. 

It was solved largely through the instrumentality of 
a man who felt that he had in past years been wronged 
by the agents of a prominent publishing firm. The 
potent and at times not wholly unselfish interest of 
school-book agents in our teachers and school officers is 
no secret. That the acquisition and loss of positions by 
teachers and officers is often determined by their opin- 
ions of certain text-books, is generally conceded. The 
person referred to had lost a lucrative office, as he be- 
lieved, through the influence of a publishing company in 
favor of his successful rival. JSTaturally, the influence 
of publishing houses over the schools assumed in his 
eyes most threatening dimensions. At the same time, 
the fact that several firms had entered into an agreement 
making competition less active in the sale of their books 
became very significant. Patriotism and desire for re- 
venge w^orked side by side in raising in the ready press 



SCHOOL-BOOK LEGISLATION. 209 

the war-cries : " Smash the book trust ! " " Cheap books 
for the children ! " Stimulated by the prospect of parti- 
san advantage, a: vigorous agitation for reform began 
in various leading newspapers. 

The Governor now took up the matter. In his next 
message to the legislature, he characterized the prices 
asked for school-books as " exorbitant " and recom- 
mended the free text-book system. According to his esti- 
mates, the average cost of school-books to each pupil 
throughout the state was about $3.00 per year. Under 
the free text-book system employed in Michigan (in 
but one city at that time, generally now), the cost was 
estimated at 50 cents per year; in Maine, at 26f cents; 
in Vermont, at about 33 cents; in Wisconsin, at about 
one-third of the former cost. He further stated that 
experts and booksellers had informed him that the prices 
paid for school-books in Indiana yielded from 300 to 
600 per cent above the average cost of production. The 
free text-book system, in his judgment, would reduce 
the cost to a " reasonable price " and lift these very 
heavy burdens from the " parents and guardians." 

Moved by the articles on this subject that had ap- 
peared in the papers, and by the message of the Gover- 
nor, no less than six members of the House of Repre- 
sentatives and several members of the Senate introduced 
bills looking toward cheaper text-books. Various plans 
were proposed — from the California system, which pro- 
vided for the compiling and manufacturing of text-books 
by the state, to the contract plans as found at that time 
in Minnesota and Indiana, and to the free text-book sys- 
tem. The Democrats favored some plans that would 
14 



210 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

give a imiform series throughout the state ; whereas the 
Republicans, adopting the idea expressed in the Gover- 
nor's message, declared for free text-books, to be fur- 
ished to the pupils by the county or the town. Thus the 
matter was made a party issue. Neither party dared re- 
fuse to " down the trust," but the Democrats accused the 
Republicans of favoring a measure that would only 
strengthen the trust. The bills in the House were re- 
ferred to the committee on education ; but when the com- 
mittee made a report, it was evident that the various 
opinions were extremely divergent and that no one of 
the bills already submitted could pass the House. As a 
compromise, the matter was referred to a special com- 
mittee, with instructions to prepare a bill that should 
harmonize the conflicting opinions so far as possible. 

It may be worth while to note the character of the task 
that the committee had before it. As soon as it seemed 
probable that some system providing for uniform text- 
books and possibly for state publication would be 
adopted, the agents of different publishing firms made 
their appearance, and the members of the legislature 
were subjected to all the influences that a well-trained 
lobby can bring to bear, in order that the old system 
might be retained. The members of the state board of 
education, while taking no open part in the discussion 
of the question, were known to be opposed to any system 
providing for state compilation and state publication of 
text-books. The adoption of such a system would 
greatly increase their work, with no adequate return, 
and the results would probably be unsatisfactory. At 
any rate, it would subject them to criticism. The Demo- 



SCHOOL-BOOK LEGISLATION. 211 

crats had openly declared for state uniformity through 
either the California or the contract plan, but many of 
them also really preferred a free text-book system. 
Moreover, of fifty-seven Democrats in the House, seven 
or nine were Roman Catholics, and it was soon found 
that these men would agree to no plan that involved any 
increased taxation. The Catholics, they said, were al- 
ready sufficiently burdened with the regular school taxes 
and the support of their parochial schools. A like feel- 
ing prevailed among the Lutherans, whom the politi- 
cians could not afford to alienate. It was necessary to 
draw a bill providing for state uniformity, and at the 
same time avoiding the objections of the Catholics and 
Lutherans to any increase in taxation. The committee 
was composed of four Democrats and three Republicans. 
At the first meeting, the chairman, a Democrat, inquired 
if the members of the two parties could agree upon any 
bill. He said that the Democrats would insist upon state 
uniformity. Two of the Republican members at once 
declared that they would support no bill providing for 
more than county uniformity. The third Republican 
seemed willing to consent to state uniformity. Two of 
the Republicans, therefore, immediately withdrew from 
the committee to prepare a minority report. The third 
member, after remaining in session with the Democrats 
for one day, also withdrew. One of the Democratic 
members was called home by illness in his family, and 
the bill, substantially as passed, was prepared within 
forty-eight hours by the three remaining Democratic 
members. The bill provided for state uniformity of 
text-books, which were to be supplied by contract under 



212 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

specifications as to prices and quality. Tlie committee 
took as the standard quality the books most commonly 
Tised in the public schools of Indiana ; and the prices, 
the committee says, were taken, with some slight modi- 
fications, from a leading firm's special contract price- 
list. A comparison with price-lists, however, shows that 
in most cases the exchange price was made the basis. 
When the bill was reported to the Democratic caucus, 
the following clause was inserted, to secure the approval 
and support of the Catholics and Lutherans : 

Any patron or pupil of any school or schools other than the 
public school, and also any child between the ages of six and 
twenty-one years of age, or the parent, guardian or teacher 
of such child, shall have the right to purchase and receive 
the books and at the prices herein named, by payment of the 
cash price therefor to the school superintendent of any 
county in this state; and it is hereby made his duty to make 
requisition on the contractor for any and all books so ordered 
and paid for by any such person or persons. 

With this amendment the bill was adopted by the cau- 
cus, reported back to the House and passed, many of the 
Republicans voting for the bill when they saw that its 
passage was assured. 

The papers had brought another influence to bear 
upon the representatives in favor of the measure. It 
was repeatedly asserted that " the trust " was spending 
money freely to prevent the passage of the bill, and the 
impression was conveyed that members of the House 
were being approached or even had been bribed by the 
representatives of the trust. Threats had even been 
made by the friends of the bill, so it is asserted, that if 



SCHOOL-BOOK LEGISLATION. 213 

any Democrats in the House voted against it, their 
names would be kept standing in the columns of the 
papers as avowed friends of the trust and enemies of 
the people. 

It is interesting to note that one of the most active 
members of this special committee personally preferred 
a free text-book system ; but knowing that, owing to the 
Catholic opposition, there was no hope of the passage of 
such a bill, he took part in drawing up and passing the 
present bill as the best one possible under the circum- 
stances. Another interesting fact is that the prices es- 
tablished by the committee were made known to the 
special agent of a large Eastern publishing house, sent 
to Indianapolis expressly to look after this law, and 
were declared by him to be satisfactory to his firm, who 
would be ready, he said, to bid for the contract.* After- 
wards, his firm, like the other leading book firms of the 
United States, declined to bid. 

The bill did not meet with the approval of the Gover- 
nor. It was not in accordance with his ideas ; but at 
the same time, believing it to be constitutional, and be- 
lieving also that by it the prices of books would be ma- 
terially lowered, he suffered the bill to become a law 
without his signature, and he has since favored its thor- 
ough enforcement. 

Soon after the passage of the law, the state board, in 
accordance with its provisions, met and advertised for 
bids to supply the state with the ordinary text-books, at 
prices within those set by the law. No responsible book 

* This fact was obtained from a member of the committee, who 
had a personal conversation with the agent on this very point. 



214 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

publisher put in a genuine bid, and it seemed at first 
that the law would be a dead letter, that the legislature 
had made a mistake and put the prices too low. At 
length some firms from outside the state, thinking that 
they could meet the prices set, asked some leading capi- 
talists in the state to go on their bond, in order that 
they might bid if the state board should advertise a 
second time. These capitalists became convinced upon 
investigation that good books might be furnished at a 
profit within the prices mentioned. Accordingly, in- 
stead of signing bonds for foreign corporations, they 
formed a company, consisting of four Republicans and 
four Democrats, and themselves put in a bid when the 
board advertised a second time. The formation of the 
company had been so quietly effected that the state board 
knew nothing of it until the bids were opened. The new 
firm had succeeded in finding a set of readers, a set of 
geographies and a set of arithmetics that met the re- 
quirements and were accepted by the board. The board 
were unable to find, at the prices named, a grammar, a 
United States history, a physiology, or a spelling-book 
that was up to the standard ; and the appropriation made 
by the legislature for advertising being exhausted, these 
books have not yet been provided for under the new law. 
A series of writing-books offered by another firm were 
preferred by the board to those offered by the new con- 
cern and were accepted. In accordance with the terms 
of the law, several manuscripts were offered the board ; 
but careful inquiry in Chicago and elsewhere convinced 
the officials that they would be unable to contract for the 
publication of such manuscripts within the rates fixed 
in the law ; so these were not further considered. 



SCHOOL-BOOK LEGISLATION. 215 

The reason why the leading publishers of school-books 
did not bid is not entirely clear. The assertion has been 
made, in their behalf, that the prices were too low to 
allow any publisher to furnish good books and make a 
fair profit. Again, it has been said that they could fur- 
nish them in large quantities at the rates named and 
make living profits ; but that if they furnished them in 
Indiana at those rates, they would be compelled to sup- 
ply other states at the same rates, which would greatly 
reduce their profits. From the fact that so many of 
them refused to bid for this contract, after some of their 
agents had expressed an intention of bidding, it seems 
probable that they had at least a confident hope of break- 
ing down the law and ultimately forcing its repeal. 
Favoring this view is the fact that a ISTew York firm put 
in a mock bid, offering some books that were entirely 
out of date; while a western house sent a letter, taunt- 
ing and, to say the least, scornful in tone, in which it 
was asserted that no reliable firm would or could bid. 
It is noteworthy that the first-mentioned bid also was a 
mere taunt — illegal, as not accompanied by a bond. 
Whatever the reason may have been, the refusal of the 
old publishers to bid has resulted in giving to the new 
corporation an apparently profitable contract for five 
years. 

In most of the counties of the state the books were 
introduced into the schools without opposition ; but some 
of the county superintendents and school trustees were 
unfriendly to the law and, believing the books inferior 
to those in use, declined to order them from the con- 
tractor. This refusal naturally resulted in lawsuits in 



216 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

which the constitutionality of the law was brought into 
question. A case having been carried up on appeal, the 
law was definitely declared constitutional by the su- 
preme court of the state. So far as one can see, the law 
is at present accepted throughout the state, and nearly 
all those superintendents who were opposed to it at first, 
and who still perhaps consider it unwise, are neverthe- 
less willing to give it a fair trial, and hope that the legis- 
lature will make provision for the completion of the 
series of text-books required.* 

The school-book question is still (1891), however, a 
factor in politics. Resolutions touching the matter were 
passed by both the leading parties in the state in their 
last nominating conventions. The Democratic resolu- 
tion endorsed the law recently enacted and called for ad- 
ditional legislation to give full effect to the object of 
this act and to extend its scope. The Republican resolu- 
tion demanded legislation which to free school-houses 
and free tuition should add free text-books, but which 
should be so framed as not to impair contracts to which 
the state was already pledged. f 

One of the candidates in the Republican party for 
the nomination of state superintendent was known to 
be hostile to the law. The Indianapolis News, an inde- 
pendent paper, in its issue of September 5, 1890, made 
the following suggestion : 

We suggest to the Eepublican state convention that it can- 
not be too careful, in nominating a candidate for the office 

* A bill for this purpose was passed Mr. 5, 1891. 

t Indiana School Journal for October, 1890, page 552. 



SCHOOL-BOOK LEGISLATION. 217 

of Superintendent of Public Instruction, to select one free 
from taint of suspicion of sympathy with the school-book 
monopoly, which, beginning with a corrupt lobby to prevent 
the passage of the present law, has abated no jot or tittle of 
its purpose to cripple and kill the system if possible. There 
has been too much aid and comfort in this way from too 
many state officers to make it anything short of perilous for 
a state nominating convention to fail to define itself in a 
positive manner on this question. 

This shows the feeling in the state. Some warnings were 
given by other independent papers, and some of the 
Republican papers agreed with them. In the nomin- 
ating convention this candidate was beaten and another 
nominated, the opposition being avowedly on the ground 
that he was supported by the friends of the school-book 
firms. In the succeeding election the Democratic candi- 
date for superintendent was successful, along with the 
rest of his ticket, the text-book question having in his 
case little or no effect. At the election of township 
trustees, in April, 1890, the school-book question was 
in many places made an issue. The result of the elec- 
tion was very favorable to the Democrats, the champions 
of the law. Whether the result were due to this issue or 
another, it is a fact that out of 92 counties in the 
state, the number in which the majority of the township 
trustees was Democratic was changed by the election 
from 40 to 74. So far as one can judge from conversa- 
tions with school men and others upon the subject, tbe 
people are inclined, for the present at least, to be satis- 
fied with the law and to give it a fair trial. 

Turning now to the merits of the case, let us inquire 



218 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

why the legislature should interfere in any way, to 
provide the children with text-books or to attempt to 
secure for them text-books at cheaper rates. A main 
argument brought forward by the champions of such 
laws is that uniformity in text-books is very desirable 
on the score of convenience for school classification. In 
every country school, it is said, if the children are pro- 
vided with a variety of text-books, a correspondingly 
large number of classes must be formed, thus making 
the teacher much unnecessary work. Again, in the 
cities, the work of grading the schools, and in the coun- 
try the arrangement of courses of study, are made very 
difficult. Besides, if there is no state uniformity of text- 
books, pupils moving from one town to another within 
the state must provide themselves with new books. 

On pedagogical grounds there seems to be no reason 
for demanding uniformity in text-books beyond the 
limits of the same school — or possibly, at the very 
farthest, of the schools in the same town or county. 
Most educators agree that the matter of uniformity in 
text-books may be carried too far, and that one series of 
text-books throughout the state cannot meet the differ- 
ing wants of schools in unlike circumstances and in dif- 
ferent localities. Superintendent Akres of Iowa, in his 
report of 1883-85 (page 55), gives the opinion of a num- 
ber of leading educators on the subject. The general be- 
lief seems to be that with good teachers 

a variety of books and hence a diversity of treatment would 
be rather an advantage than a hindrance to good work. It 
must be admitted, however, that it is not reasonable to ex- 



SCHOOL-BOOK LEGISLATION. 219 

pect this of the young teachers, of whom we employ so large 
a number. 

'All agree, moreover, that state uniformity is too much 
to ask ; that uniformity of text-books in the towns, or at 
the utmost in the counties, is enough. In some of the 
southern and western states, state uniformity is pre- 
ferred on account of the ignorance of local boards ; but 
this has nothing to do with the pedagogical view given. 

Another reason urged in favor of legislation is that 
the text-books are so frequently changed that unneces- 
sary expense is incurred. Many of the states have 
sought to remedy this by the provision that text-books 
shall not be changed within a limited time — usually 
four, five, or six years. Certainly no state-publishing 
law or state-contract system is necessary to prevent 
changes in the text-books. A law on that single point is 
amply sufficient. 

The argument that has proved most effective in se- 
curing legislation in Indiana, and also in other states, 
is that school-book publishers have combined into a 
"trust," and that their power, exerted politically, has 
been detrimental to the state so far as the excellence of 
its schools is concerned, and has also resulted in exorbi- 
tant prices for the text-books. A table, made from re- 
ports by the county superintendents of schools in Indi- 
ana to the committee on education of the legislature of 
1889, gives the names of the publishers supplying text- 
books in the different counties throughout the state.* It 

* See attorney-general's brief in State ex rel. Philip Snoke vs. 
Elijah A. Blue, Trustee, page 40. 



220 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

shows that more than seventy-five per cent of the text- 
books used in the common schools, have been supplied by 
a single firm. The Indianapolis Sentinel published 
this table with the following comment : 

It will be seen that this great firm supplies readers in 
sixty-nine of the eighty-four counties reported, arithmetics 
in eighty-two out of the eighty-four, grammars in eighty-one, 
geographies in sixty-nine, physiologies in forty-seven, his- 
tories in fifty-nine and spellers in seventy. The other trust 
houses are allowed to sell a few books in scattering localities, 
just to " keep up appearances," but not enough to interfere 
with the * * * monopoly. 

This table, published in the Sentinel, had doubtless 
great influence with the legislature in the passage of 
the present Indiana law. It was assumed by the paper 
that the uniformity was too great to be natural, and 
that it proved the employment of unfair means on the 
part of the successful house. I suppose that no one 
would claim that this uniformity was due entirely to 
the superior excellence of the books manufactured by the 
firm in question. But on the other hand, does it show 
anything more than exceptional push and energy in the 
usual methods of trade ? We all know the ways of active 
traveling agents in all lines of business. There can be 
no doubt that corrupt means have, at times, been em- 
ployed to secure the introduction of text-books. Indeed, 
the former Indiana school law itself favored the employ- 
ment of unfair means by book publishers. The school 
trustee alone, in the township, had authority to declare 
what text-books should be used in his schools, and a ma- 
jority of the trustees in the county had the right to name 



SCHOOL-BOOK LEGISLATION. 221 

the text-books for the county as a whole. It is obvious 
that the decision of the few men who held these powers 
might be influenced by active agents with comparatively 
little difficulty, and in some cases, if the agents were 
willing to employ corrupt means, at comparatively slight 
expense. But though the methods employed by agents 
may at times have been doubtful, and though the pub- 
lishers may not always have inquired too curiously into 
the means employed by their agents in making sales, it 
is not to be believed that the methods of school-book 
men were more corrupt than those ordinarily employed 
by other wholesale dealers who have to do with 
public functionaries.* Nor can one who has been ac- 
quainted with hundreds of school teachers believe that 
the teachers and trustees of a state as a whole were pur- 
chased by one or by several book firms. But this much 
at least may safely be asserted, that the means employed 
by publishers to urge books upon the schools have not 
always been fair, and that it is not surprising that 
efforts have been made to check them, though these ef- 
forts may not always have been wisely directed. 

* The actiA'ity of agents in inciting parents, teachers and school 
officers to put in their books, even contrary to law, is shown in a 
circular, November 24, 1890, by the state superintendent of 
Mississippi to county superintendents, in which he says that 
" certain persons, acting as agents of the American Book Com- 
pany, were going from school to school in counties where the 
books of the company had not been adopted, and were inciting 
the people to refuse to supply their children with the adopted 
books, efc." The attorney-general ruled concerning the law that 
the use of the books adopted was mandatory, and that " a county 
superintendent cannot lawfully pay a teacher who refuses or neg- 
lects to comply with his contract, which requires that only books 
selected under the act of 1890 shall be used." 



222 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

So far as can be learned there is no evidence that the 
combination of book publishers at that time had resulted 
in more than a partial division of territory, and conse- 
quently in a slackened competition between the differ- 
ent houses, with a correspondingly lessened expense to 
themselves for agents. There is no evidence that the 
prices of books had been raised by this combination, or 
that competition had been entirely done away with, as 
in the case of a trust proper. The combining firms 
simply agreed to abandon one form of competition — 
that which consisted in employing agents specially com- 
missioned, in the first place, to oust from the schools 
the books of other firms, and in the second place to pro- 
tect the books of their own employers against such 
ouster. Each firm agreed to respect the status quo. It 
is probably true that the prices of school-books were 
higher than would have been necessary under the normal 
conditions of trade. The expense of keeping so many 
agents in the field, before the combination was made, 
necessitated these high prices ; and business firms are 
seldom prompt to lower rates. But it is doubtful if the 
abuse was great enough to merit so aggressive action as 
was taken in various states. It is of course under- 
stood that the cries, " Smash the trust," " Strangle the 
octopus " and so on, which filled the papers were war- 
cries to carry the bill through the legislature. 

Assuming, however, that the prices of text-books were 
unreasonably high, let us consider the relative merits 
of the different measures proposed in different states 
to remedy this evil.* The first system is that by 

* Note the date of this article and the note at the end. 



SCHOOL-BOOK LEGISLATION. 223 

which the state becomes the publisher and owner, and 
in some cases even the author, of the text-books used in 
the schools. California is the only one of our states 
that has given this plan a fair trial. In 1882 the matter 
was made a political issue in that state, " by some politi- 
cians," it is asserted, though, doubtless, many who voted 
for the new plan thought the state was to derive great 
benefit from it, financially and otherwise. In 1884 an 
amendment to the state constitution obliged the state to 
provide its own plant and to set about the compilation 
of the necessary books. The first estimates of the state 
printer as to the cost were ridiculously low — not ten per 
cent of what has actually been expended ; but the legis- 
lature promptly voted the appropriations asked for, and 
the plan has been fairly tested. 

From the report of the state superintendent for 1886 
I take the following. The superintendent first states 
the prices of Bancroft's, McGuffey's, and Swinton's 
readers, and thus continues : 

The series of the state costs but little more than one-third 
of the price of the cheapest of the above.* Here is a triumph- 
ant success, not dreamed of by the most hopeful of the friends 
of the enterprise. * * * Henceforth no man will dare 
try to abort this great reform and saddle again on the people 
the grinding exaction under which they have heretofore 
groaned. [Page 36.] 

Some longer extracts from the report of 1888, with a 
careful comparison of prices, lead, however, to a conclu- 

* It sliould be said that there are only three readers in the 
California series, to five in tlie other, though in paging there is 
less difference. 



224 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

sion somewhat different. The writer is evidently labor- 
ing to make out his case. On page 49, he says : 

The state of California has taken a step in the right direc- 
tion in furnishing books of its own manufacture to the 
children at cost. It should in my opinion go one step farther, 
and furnish the use of text-books free to all children attend- 
ing the public schools. 

In his judgment, this step would save half the cost to 
those districts that were willing to buy the books and 
loan them to the children. It would probably save more 
than that. He further says that the complaints against 
the system have been due to the poor binding of the first 
edition, and that there has been no complaint in respect 
to the later issues. Since some of the books have been 
issued and have gone into use, he finds that many per- 
sons who were opposed to the undertaking at first have 
become convinced of its feasibility and economy. Then, 
becoming definite as to prices, he adds : 

It may be claimed and must be admitted, that it costs the 
state more to manufacture the books than it will cost a pri- 
vate publishing house. The state pays better wages than the 
private publisher and works its help eight hours a day, while 
the private publisher works his help ten hours a day. But 
the consumer is interested not in the actual first cost of the 
books but in the cost to him. Since the state charges no 
manufacturer's profit, no jobber's profit, and the retail dealer 
is allowed by law to charge no more than it will cost the 
pupil to have the books sent to him by mail (the retail 
dealer making only the difference between postage and 
freight), it follows that the consumer, or pupil, pays the 



SCHOOL-BOOK LEGISLATION. 



225 



private publisher, or his retail dealer, from 30 per cent to 66 
per cent more than he is required to pay the state for his 
text-books. 

To support this statement, he gives a series of tables of 
books and prices. I cite the last one, which summarizes 
the others. 



Set of State Readers 
(three books, 928 
pages) $1.25 

Set of State Arithme- 
tics (two books) ... .75 

State Grammar 50 

State History (432 
pages) 80 

State Speller and An- 
alysis 30 

$3.60 



Set of McGuffey's 
Readers (five books, 
1088 pages) $2.50 

Set of Fish's or Robin- 
son's Arithmetics 
(two books) 1.25 

Reed and Kellogg's or 

Harvey's Grammar.. .75 

History (Anderson's, 
379 pp. ; Barnes', 352 
pp. ; or Eclectic, 400 
pp.) 1.25 

Reed's Speller 30 



$6.05 



So far as prices are concerned, the showins^ is cer- 
tainly very favorable for the state series ; but still it 
seems to me not quite fair. In both cases, retail prices 
are given, and presumably these prices were asked and 
obtained in the Sacramento stores. But these figures 
seem too high for Sacramento, since the price hy mail of 
the state books was five cents higher than that allowed 
to be taken by retail dealers, while I find that at that 

date the other books would have been sent by any job- 
15 



226 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

bing house hj mail, one book at a time, for a total of 
thirty-five cents less than the quoted prices — a small 
difference, perhaps, but worth noting. Turthermore, 
the two series of readers compared, while both are con- 
sidered complete, differ so much in number of books as 
well as in paging, that the difference in prices should 
not be reckoned at full value. 

Again, and this is of consequence, the prices of the 
California series are supposed to be so calculated as to 
cover in twelve years the cost of plant, together with the 
cost of compilation and plates reckoned on an eight-year 
life, and one cent per copy profit is added to cover possi- 
ble errors. As has been said, the first estimate as to the 
amount of capital required was but a small part of the 
amount actually expended. Again, it was found in 
1888 that the prices has been fixed too low, and they 
were raised at that time to the present rates. These 
two facts taken together seem to show that in all prob- 
ability the state has lost, so far at least, the interest on 
the money invested, besides some of the working capital ; 
and one may well be somewhat skeptical as to future im- 
provement. If the interest on the capital invested be 
added to the price of the state books — and this seems 
fair — the difference as compared with the publishers' 
price becomes less still or even entirely disappears. 

The prices of the California state books are as low, 
it seems, as they can be put; but within the last two 
years the publishers of other school-books have lowered 
their prices to purchasers of single copies, and any 
school district can make very favorable terms with them. 
If for the prices given above I should substitute the 



SCHOOL-BOOK LEOISLATION. 227 

present mailing prices offered by the American Book 
Company, we should have : 

McGuffey's set of Headers $2.11 

Fish's Arithmetic 90 

Harvey's Grammar 65 

History, either of those mentioned above . . . 1.00 
Speller 25 

Total $4.91 

The same books could be bought by the school districts 
or counties or state on contract for $3.94. If we take 
into account the difference in the number of books and 
the quality of work, to say nothing of the contents, it 
seems clear that at present, at any rate, a state, if Cali- 
fornia is typical, can contract with publishers to furnish 
it with text-books at a cost as low as that at which it can 
manufacture them, and can thus escape all the risk and 
trouble of the manufacture and save the interest on the 
investment. Indeed, the book companies offer to mail 
to individual buyers sets of books at rates apparently 
as low as the mailing prices of the California books. 
Let me cite one example only of ten lists offered by the 
American Book Company. In addition to the list of 
California books given above by the state superintend- 
ent, the state publishes an elementary geography at 60 
cents, and an elementary language book at 30 cents, 
making the total cost of the set $4.50, or by mail $4.55. 
The book company places in opposition the following 
list: 



228 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

McGufFey's Eevised First Eeader $0.17 

McGuffey's Revised Second Reader 30 

McGuffey's Revised Third Reader 42 

McGuffey's Revised Fourth Reader 50 

McGuffey's Revised Speller 17 

Fecklin's Primary Aritmetic 28 

Fecklin's National Arithmetic 70 

Maxwell's Primary Lessons in Language . . . .30 
Maxwell's Introductory English Grammar . . , .40 

Swinton's United States History 90 

Harper's Introductory Geography 48 

$4:62 



Other combinations are made at about the same rate, 
one or two of them at even less than $4.55, and all of 
them containing some of the best books. It is noticeable, 
however, that the set of readers is not complete, though 
containing one more than the state series. 

The state of California at present then is not saving 
money by manufacturing books, if we compare prices 
with those it might contract for, size and quality of 
books being considered. It is probably true, moreover, 
that selections might be made by any board from the 
books of private firms that would on the whole be better 
adapted to the work of the schools. Many statements 
have doubtless been made by private publishers in de- 
nunciation of the California series that convey too 
strong an impression of worthlessness ; but the general 
opinion of educators, as well as the circumstances under 
which the books have been compiled, both lead to the 



SCHOOL-BOOK LEGISLATION. 229 

conclusion that they are inferior to the best standard 
works of private publishers.* 

It is probable that the credit for the more liberal 
rates offered by the school-book publishers, and for the 
greater care that they are taking to supply books directly 
to puj)ils or to school boards, should be given largely to 
the California movement and to other plans adopted 
in other states, looking toward cheaper text-books. 
While the state-publishing plan costs more than a state- 
contract system might, or than a system of free text- 
books bought in large quantities by county or town offi- 
cials, it has, nevertheless, perhaps lowered the price 
somewhat when compared with the system of free com- 
petition now existing in most states.f 

*0n the 3d of December, 1890, the biennial convention of 
California school superintendents adopted, almost unanimously, 
the following resolution : 

" Resolved, that wliile certain of the state text-books — notably 
tlie primary language lessons and elementary geography — have 
met the approbation of the public school teachers of the state, 
Ave desire to record our severe criticism and disapproval of others 
of the state series, and express our judgment that their thorough 
revision by comptent authorities, so as to adapt them to the 
wants of the scliools, is imperative and should be entered upon 
at once." — San Francisco Examiner, Dec. 4, 1890. 

It may perhaps be said here once for all that, while this article 
is written mainly from the political and economic standpoint, 
the writer nevertheless considers that the quality of the books is 
of chief importance. A saving of even fifty cents a year for each 
pupil, important as it is, is not of such vital consequence as good 
training ; and this training, considering the poor preparation of 
many of our teachers, is largely dependent on the text-books. 

f In a letter to Superintendent P. R. Walker, of Rockford, 111., 
received after this article was in the printer's hands. Super- 
intendent Hoitt of California distinctly acknowledges that the 



230 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

Several states, with Minnesota the first, and per- 
haps, with the exception of Indiana, the most promi- 
nent, have adopted a uniform series of text-books for 
the common schools, and have made arrangements to 
purchase the books at a fixed price from one contractor. 

In Minnesota the act was passed in 1877, directing 
the governor, secretary of state, and attorney-general to 
enter into a contract with Daniel D. Merrill, to supply 
the state with books for fifteen years; the books to be 
equal in size and in quality of both matter and material 
to certain books named. The prices were fixed in the 
law, the former price as well as the contract price being 
stated. In 1878, provision was made for submitting to 
the voters the question of continuing the act. In 1880, 
a majority of those voting on that question were in favor 
of its repeal; but this was without effect, since a ma- 
jority of those voting at that election was necessary to 
repeal the law. In 1883, and again in 1885, some 
amendments were made regarding the distribution of 
books; but these were afterward declared unconstitu- 

system has not met his expectations. It has cost the state more 
to manufacture, he says, and there is a lack of confidence in tlie 
authorship. He adds: " In the light of our experience . . . lam 
reluctantly compelled to admit that I would not advise another 
state to enter upon state publication of text-books, but I would 
advise the making of a uniformity text-book law, and tlie pur- 
chase, at wholesale, in open market. I believe that publishers 
would give to a state a less wholesale rate than to individuals ; 
and taking into consideration the interest on the appropriations 
in this state, and the wear and tear of the plant, books could now 
be purchased at wholesale rates by the state for less than it costs 
the state to manufacture them. In my opinion every state 
should provide for the free use of text-books." 



SCHOOL-BOOK LEGISLATION. 



231 



tional, and the original law still stands. The section of 
the law fixing prices reads as follows : 

The prices to be paid by the state for the above-named 
text-books shall be for the 



Speller, not to exceed 15 cents. 


Present 


price. 


$0.25 


First Eeader, ' 


' 10 


a 




u 


.20 


Second Reader, * 


' 20 


a 




u 


.45 


Third Reader, ' 


' 30 


u 




u 


.60 


Fourth Reader, ' 


' 40 


11 




u 


.90 


First Grammar, ' 


' 25 


a 




u 


.60 


Practical Grammar, ' 


' 50 


a 




a 


1.00 


First Arithmetic, ' 


' 12 


u 




C( 


.25 


Second Arithmetic ' 


' 25 


ce 




li 


.40 


Third Arithmetic, ' 


' 50 


u 




u 


.94 


First Geography ' 


' 50 


it 




a 


.80 


Second Geography, ' 


' 80 


<i 




u 


1.50 


Book of History, ' 


' 60 


(4 




t( 


1.50 



And for other books than those in this section named, a 
proportional price and no more shall be paid by the state. 

The Superintendent of Public Instruction shall fix a price 
upon each book which will cover the cost of transmitting 
them to the several counties of this state. 



Agents are appointed by the county commissioners 
to sell these books to the patrons and children of the 
schools, and such agents are allowed in payment for 
their services eight per cent of the amount of their sales, 
to be paid out of the school fund of the county raised by 
taxation. " Any person purchasing books from the 
agents may sell the same at an advance equal to an aver- 



232 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

age of ten (10) per cent above the state superintendent's 
list of prices and no more." 

A comparison of these prices will show that book 
publishers will supply similar books at as good, and in 
some cases at better, rates even to school districts buying 
separately, and in some instances to individual purchas- 
ers. The testimony of many teachers is to the same 
effect, i.e. that nothing is saved to the pupils in money 
by the use of the state series.* It is doubtless thought by 
many teachers, probably by the majority, that they 
could buy from private publishers books that for school 
use would please them better. Prominent teachers in 
the state believe that the law will be repealed 
when the contract expires. 

In order that the books may be kept up to the stand- 
ard, the law provides that they be revised, though not 
oftener than once every five years, in such particulars 
as the state superintendent shall direct ; but as no pro- 
vision is made to meet the expense of such revision, this 
part of the law is practically null. The contractor, how- 
ever, it seems, in order to keep the good will of the peo- 
ple, has declared his willingness to bear the expense 
of a revision, under the direction of the state superin- 
tendent, of some of the books at any rate. 

It may be noted that, in Minnesota, boards of educa- 

* It must be added that letters received from teachers in 
Winona and St. Paul declare the state prices lower than any 
obtainable from private jiublishers. But these teachers do not 
themselves use the books. A careful study of price lists has con- 
vinced me that, when all the percentages are added, the statutory 
prices are such as the private publishers can and will meet ; and 
I believe the opinion expressed in the text to be correct. 



SCHOOL-BOOK LEGISLATION. 233 

tion acting under special charter are not under the law, 
so that many of the cities are not obliged to use the pre- 
scribed books. This doubtless accounts in great part 
for the boast of some book publishers that they still 
furnish a very large percentage of the books to the chil- 
dren of that state. The American Book Company 
claims to supply still about one-half of all the text-books 
used there. 

It cannot be seen that Minnesota, now at least, gains 
anything by her system, unless we believe that state 
uniformity as such is desirable. It is probable, as I 
have said, that the present low prices of text-books are 
due in part to the state laws ; and to these especially, 
perhaps, is due the greater care on the part of the pub- 
lisher to protect his patrons from the rapacity of many 
of the retail dealers in country towns. By some firms 
the local dealers are compelled to sign a contract to sell 
at a fixed retail price, and the publishers pay the ad- 
vertisements giving these prices. If the retail dealer 
asks higher prices, he can no longer get good discounts 
from the publisher. The plan is good for both pub- 
lisher and purchaser; but we may thank the state-con- 
tract systems, and the means employed to pass them — 
exposure of unequal prices in different places — for this 
improvement, as well as for lower prices. 

The state superintendent of Louisiana, in his report 
for 1888-89, says that the state board of education, in 
accordance with their school law, adopted a list of books 
to be used in the public schools, and school officers were 
to " enforce the introduction and use of said books abso- 
lutely." 



234 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

Contracts were entered into with publishing houses, and 
stipulations were made to have the books sold at the lowest 
market prices. The retail prices are as low as the retail 
prices of any state in the Union. These prices are stamped 
on the books. The publishers have obligated themselves (in 
the contract providing a penalty for non-compliance) to sell 
them at the stamped prices. The board endeavored to secure 
uniformity of text-books on terms the most advantageous to 
the patrons of the schools. To date, so far the scheme to 
secure uniformity in the use of books at reduced prices has 
proven satisfactory to those upon whom devolve the ex- 
penses of purchasing them.* 

(An extract from the official list of books adopted by 
the state board as text-books of the state of Louisiana, 
June 25, 1889, for four years, with the exchange and re- 
tail prices,f will enable us to compare the prices in 
Louisiana with those in other states. 

Exchange. Retail. 

McGuffey's Primer $0.15 

McGuffey's Speller $0.10 .20 

McGufiey's First Reader 10 .20 

McGuffey's Second Reader 18 .30 

McGuffey's Third Reader 25 .45 

McGuffey's Fourth Reader 30 .50 

McGuffey's Fifth Reader 45 .75 

McGuffey's Sixth Reader 50 .85 

Mitchell's First Lessons in Geography 20 .40 

Mitchell's New Primary Geography 30 .55 

* Biennial Report of the State Superintendent of Public Educa- 
tion of Louisiana, page 3. 
j;Ibid., pp. 151 et seq. 



SCHOOL-BOOK LEGISLATION. 235 

Exchange. Retail. 

Mitchell's Intermediate Geography (State 

Edition) $0.70 $1.20 

Reed and Kellogg's Graded Lessons in Eng- 
lish .40 

Eeed and Kellogg's Higher Lessons in Eng- 
lish .60 

Nicholson's Primary Arithmetic .20 

Nicholson's Intermediate Arithmetic .35 

Nicholson's Advanced Intermediate Arith- 
metic .90 

The publishers, in the contract with the state, agree 
to give a discount of sixteen and two-thirds per cent, 
from these retail prices to dealers generally throughout 
the state. They further agree that a rebate of ten per 
cent, over and above this discount 

shall be allowed to not less than six depositaries, the said de- 
positaries, by special agreement with the publishers, to agree 
to sell the books to the local dealers at the general discount 
of sixteen and two-thirds per cent above named, so as to en- 
able the local dealers throughout the state to sell the adopted 
books to the consumers at the retail price as stamped on the 
books. 

The state designates such cities and towns as are 
deemed proper as depositaries to supply these books to 
dealers, agents, parents, and others. 

The prices show that the books are sold to the pupils 
at about the usual wholesale rates of two years ago. It is 
worth noting that in Louisiana state uniformity and 



236 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

low prices have been secured by this state-contract law, 
while it cannot be said that there is in any sense a 
monopoly, as not all the books are furnished by the same 
company. 

In West Virginia, the most radical system has been 
adopted. The law prescribes by name the text-books 
that shall be used. The state superintendent is then 
directed to contract with the publishers of those books to 
furnish them to the state so that the pupils may pur- 
chase them at the regular wholesale price — dealers in 
that state receiving a discount of sixteen and two-thirds 
per cent from this price. The retail price of the books 
is to be posted in each school-house and bookstore and a 
heavy penalty is provided for selling to pupils at higher 
prices. Provision is made for a renewal of the contract 
every five years. 

Last winter, the governor in his regular message de- 
clared that, in his opinion, the pupils of the state were 
paying " fully one-third more for school-books than they 
are reasonably worth, and can and will be furnished for, 
if a proper law upon the subject be made." * He was 
particularly opposed to the designation of the special 
books by law, thinking that this gave the publishers 
the power to make their wholesale prices about what 
they pleased. The combination of several of the leading 
firms to lessen competition, also, led him to the belief 
that prices were too high. In a special message sent to 
the legislature some ten days later — written, it may be 
said, after an interview with the secretary of the Indi- 

* Message of Governor Wilson, January 13, 1890, page 22. 



SCHOOL-BOOK LEGISLATION. 237 

ana School Book Company — he calls attention to the law 
of Indiana and gives lists of comparative prices. These, 
he says, reveal the fact 

that we are paying over thirty-five per cent more for the 
books named than the state of Indiana is paying for books 
of a like character, as good in every way as ours; and we 
are assured by the manager of the Indiana house that the 
same books can be furnished to us at the same price. 

It is not to be understood that Governor Wilson recom- 
mended the Indiana books ; he recommended only the 
Indiana system. The legislature, however, did not 
change the present system ; but instead, it amended the 
former law so that the new contract with the publishers 
should be made for one year only instead of five. 

In Ohio, also, last winter the demand for cheaper 
text-books made itself felt. Plans ranging from state 
manufacture to local contract were brought forward. 
Section 4020 of the school law gave each school board 
the right to prescribe text-books for their schools, sub- 
ject to change not of tencr than once in five years ; and 
also the right to purchase direct from publishers and to 
furnish to pupils at cost price all text-books and school 
supplies. An amendment to this section was passed 
April 28, 1890. The amendment makes provision for a 
school board, to be composed of the governor, the state 
commissioner of schools, the supervisor of public print- 
ing, and two members appointed by the governor, " one 

* Special message, January 28, 1890, page 3. 



238 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

from each of the two leading political parties, one of said 
persons to be a practical educator and the other to be a 
practical business man." The state commissioner is to 
procure for this board, so far as is possible, " one copy 
of the latest and best edition of each of the school text- 
books in use ... in the public schools," and the board 
is directed to secure 

all such information as may be necessary to fully advise 
them, and within sixty days after the passage of this act, 
fix the price not to exceed which each of said text-books may 
be sold to and purchased by boards of education * * * ; 
but the price so fixed on any book shall not exceed eighty 
per cent of the present lowest price thereof, at which such 
book is now sold by the publisher thereof to dealers. 

Provision is made for notice to publishers and for their 
acceptance of the terms. Each local board has the right 
to adopt whichever books it pleases from this list, but 
it must furnish to the schools, either directly or through 
dealers, the books of its selection. In either case, the 
pupils are not to pay more than this contract price plus 
ten per cent. If satisfactory books and prices cannot be 
secured in the way above described, the state board is 
empowered to advertise for bids from publishers, au- 
thors, or would-be compilers, and in this way to secure 
satisfactory books at satisfactory prices. 

It is worthy of note, in the first place, that the 
prices are to be fixed on the books " in use in the public 
schools." It is asserted that this special provision was 
made at the instance of publishers who had many books 



SCHOOL-BOOK LEGISLATION. 239 

already in use, and who knew that some such measure 
would probably be passed. Its effect was to cut off in 
the first instance, and perhaps permanently, the compe- 
tition of such contractors as those who were already fur- 
nishing Minnesota and Indiana with cheap books, al- 
though the provision was perhaps not directly aimed at 
these special contractors. It is known that the Ameri- 
can Book Company, the company which is especially 
interested, has already purchased the control of the 
company that supplies the Indiana contractors with 
their books ; but of course the books must still be fur- 
nished until the expiration of the five years for which 
the contract runs. An agent of the American Book 
Company says, further, that the Minnesota contractor 
will not act against the company in Ohio — implying 
that they have joined forces. Others assert that the 
purpose was to avoid state uniformity such as is seen in 
Indiana and Minnesota. 

It is understood that a difference of opinion arose 
among the members of the school board regarding the 
proper interpretation of the expression " eighty per 
cent of the present lowest price thereof." A decision 
of the attorney-general made the expression mean 
" eighty per cent of the lowest price at which books are 
sold to dealers." All the publishers but one declined to 
bid under this interpretation. At present the law is 
practically void, the local boards still making their own 
contracts as formerly. The state board has not yet 
fixed the price on any books, and new legislation will 
therefore be needed to carry out the law. 

As the law of Indiana furnishes perhaps the most 



240 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

complete example of this contract system in its fullest 
development, it may be worth while to ^ive the system 
and the results in that state somewhat in detail. The 
law provides that the state board of education* shall 
constitute the board of commissioners.t This board of 
commissioners is to advertise for proposals (a) " from 
publishers of text-books, for furnishing books to the 
school trustees for use in the common schools of the 
state for a term of five years"; (&) from authors of 
school text-books, for prices at which they will sell un- 
published manuscript, with copyright of such books, for 
the same purpose; and (c) from persons who are willing 
to undertake the compilation of such books as are pro- 
vided for in the act, for the price at which they are will- 
ing to undertake such compilation to the acceptance and 
satisfaction of the board. The board of commissioners 
is to be satisfied regarding the excellence of such books, 
but it 

shall not in any case contract with any author, publisher or 
publishers, for the furnishing of any book, manuscript, copy- 
right or books which shall be sold to patrons for use in the 
public schools of this state at a price above or in excess of 
the following, which prices shall include all cost and charges 
for transportation and delivery to the several county school 

* This is an ex officio board, consisting of the governor, the 
state superintendent of public instruction, the president of the 
State University, the president of Purdue University (the State 
Agricultural and Technological School), the pi'esident of the 
State Normal School, and the superintendents of common schools 
of the three largest cities in the state. 

f School laws of Indiana, sec. 4420. 



SCHOOL-BOOK LEGISLATION. 241 

superintendents in this state, namely: For a spelling book, 
ten (10) cents; for a first reader, ten (10) cents; for a second 
reader, fifteen (15) cents; for a third reader, twenty-five (25) 
cents; for a fourth reader, thirty (30) cents; for a fifth 
reader, forty (40) cents; for an arithmetic, intermediate, 
thirty-five (35) cents; for an arithmetic, complete, forty-five 
(45) cents; for a geography, elementary, thirty (30) cents; 
for a geography, complete, seventy-five (75) cents; for an 
English grammar, elementary, twenty-five (25) cents; for an 
English grammar, complete, forty (40) cents; for a physi- 
ology, thirty-five (35) cents; for a history of the United 
States, fifty (50) cents; for copy books, each, five (6) cents.* 

These books are to be furnished to the schools by the 
contractor through the agency of the school officers of 
the state before the opening of the schools, the township 
trustees notifying the county superintendent of the 
number of books that will be needed in their townships 
throughout the year. The county superintendent reports 
to the state superintendent, who in turn gives the order 
to the contractor. The contractor ships the books to the 
county superintendent, who delivers them to the town- 
ship trustees, by whom they are sold to the patrons of 
the schools ; and the money received for the books is then 
remitted quarterly, through the hands of the trustees to 
the county superintendents. The state is in no case to 
incur any financial liability. All sales are to be made 
for cash, and the work is to be done at the expense of 
the state by the school officers. 



* Text-book Law, sec. 3. 
16 



242 



CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 





McGUFFEY'S 

Readers. 


Ray's 

ARITH. 


White's 
Arith. 


Hakv's 
Qram'r. 


His- 
tory. 


Geography. 


Phys- 

lOL'GY 


Spei^ 
ler. 


Counties.* 




■a 

a 
o 
o 


i 


u 




.a 


la 

a 

1- 

s 

a 





6 

a 


a 






s 

B 


6 

0. 

a 




6 


S 


d 


d 


CO 

6 


6 



6 

i 


















42 


75 


50 
43 


75 

65 
75 
75 
65 
75 
75 


1 00 

'i'26" 
i 06" 

1 25 
1 00 


55 1 90 








Allen 


17 
15 


30 
30 


43 

40 


50 
50 


72 
80 


35 
30 


50 
55 


55 
65 
80 
55 
65 
60 
5"i 


1 20 
1 30 
1 25 
1 20 
1 25 
1 30 
1 10 
1 10 
1 10 


i'56 
i'56 


60 
70 


17 
15 




50 

'42' 
35 
35 


75 

'75' 
65 
65 


50 
43 
56 
45 

50 
42 
42 
50 




Blackford . . . 












35 
'35" 


50 
60 
60 


70 
' "75 


20 


Boone 

Brown 

Carroll 


30 
^0 


35 
35 


45 

50 


60 
60 


85 


20 
20 




17 
17 

20 
20 


30 
30 
35 
35 


42 
43 

50 
45 


50 
50 
60 
60 


72 

72 
85 
85 


'56' 


70 
60 


65 
65 
75 


1 10 
'i'25" 


55 
55 

75 
60 


i'36 
1 50 


75 


17 


Clarke 

Clay 


17 

20 


























Daviess...... 

Dearborn.... 

Decatur..... 

Dekalb 


30 
25 
20 
30 
30 
20 


35 
30 
35 
35 
40 
35 


45 
50 
50 
50 
55 
50 


60 
65 
59 
60 
65 
60 


85 
90 
85 
85 
99 
80 


■ii 

'46" 


60 
65 

60 

60 
60 


'60' 


'75' 


.50 

50 
.50 
50 


75 
85 
75 
75 
80 
75 
85 
53 


1 00 

'i'if 


60 
70 
46 


1 20 
1 25 
1 30 


1 40 


""75 

70 
75 


20 

'26'" 
20 




1 25 


55 
65 


1 20 
1 30 




20 


Dubois 

Elkhart 






45 
50 
35 


1 50 




20 


Fayette 

Floyd 


15 


35 


35 


53 


50 


31 


52 


43 


54 


84 


55 




1 20 


50 






30 


35 


50 


60 


86 


45 


60 






50 


75 


1 20 


65 


1 40 






20 










Fulton 


20 
30 
30 
30 


30 
35 
35 
35 


45 

50 
50 
50 


60 
65 
60 
65 


85 
85 

85 
80 




65 
70 
60 

nO 


50 


75 


45 


80 
75 
80 
75 
65 
75 
80 
78 
75 
75 
75 
65 
75 


1 25 

'i'25' 

'i'io' 
'i'26' 

1 25 
1 30 

'i'66' 


60 
55 


i'25 
1 25 

1 25 
1 20 




75 


20 
20 








50 




75 

1 25 

75 


20 








20 








45 
40 


20 














40 


60 
65 




















64 


1 50 
1 30 


i'56 


70 
72 
75 


20 
















42 
60 

'm 

'46' 


70 
75 

75' 

'75" 


50 
50 
50 
45 
42 
50 




Henry 


30 


35 


55 


65 


85 


'46' 


60 


20 


65 
65 

5^ 
65 


1 35 
1 35 
1 10 
1 35 




20 
















70 
1 00 


20 


Jackson 

Jasper 


17 
20 


30 
35 


42 

5U 


50 
60 


73 
85 


35 


50 


17 
20 


Jefferson 


30 


30 


42 


50 


75 


35 


50 






45 


65 


1 00 


55 


90 


1 50 


1 00 


20 














35 
35 


65 
60 










1 25 

1 00 


65 
65 

70 


1 35 
1 40 
1 40 






85 


Knox 

Kosciusko. .. 


30 
30 


35 
35 


45 
50 


60 
60 


85 
85 


"56' 
40 


"85 
70 


50 
50 


75 

85 




75 
75 


20 
80 




15 


30 


42 


55 


85 


45 


65 




80 




65 


1 30 






23 


















30 


35 


50 


65 


85 


35 


65 








75 




65 




1 50 


( 75 
11 20 


20 













"■This table is taken from the attorney-generars brief in the case of State ex 
rel. Philip Snoke vs. Elijah A. Blue, Trustee, etc., pp. 43, 43 ; published in the 
Indianapolis Sentinel, February 20, 1890, 



SCHOOL-BOOK LEGISLATION. 



243 





McGUFFEY'S 

Rbadebs. 


Ray's 

ABITH. 


White's 
Arith. 


Harv's 
Gram'r. 


Hts- 
TORY. 


Geography. 


Phys- 

lOL'GY 


Spel- 
ler. 


Counties. 




13 

a 
o 
o 
H) 


i 

3 

H 


3 
O 


si 


.2 
<s> 
S 

s 

c 


■5 





6 

.2 
'•B 


a 

a 




a 
B 




a 

a 

a) 


4) 

aj 
n. 

a 






6 
t 

1 


6 


ei 

6 

S5 


eo 
6 


6 

"S 


6 

1 




30 


35 


55 


60 


85 






60 
45 

"60 


65 
65 

'75" 








70 

75 


1 40 
1 40 






20 




50 
45 

'56" 


85 
75 
80 

75 

85 


1 10 




1 00 


20 




30 

30 
30 


35 
40 
35 
35 


50 
50 
45 
50 


60 
65 
60 
60 


85 

1 00 

85 

85 


45 


60 
75 

65 


20 


Martin 


1 25 
1 25 
1 30 
1 35 


60 
70 
75 


1 25 
1 35 
1 25 
1 35 


1 50 










20 




1 50 
1 50 


70 


20 


Montgomery. 


60 


85 


45 
























55 


85 


60 
45 


85 
70 
80 
80 
65 
85 


'i'io' 

1 25 
1 35 

1 00 
1 00 


75 
55 
65 
65 
60 
75 


i'36 
1 25 


1 50 

i'35 
1 35 
1 35 
1 50 


75 
65 
60 


20 


Noble 

Ohio 


20 
20 
30 
20 
30 


35 
35 
34 
35 
35 


45 
50 
50 
45 
50 


55 
60 
60 
55 
60 


80 
90 
85 
75 
1 00 


■56" 


55 
55 
60 
50 


26 








50 
35 
50 




Orange 


'i'66 


20 
20 














Pilie 






































20 
20 
30 
30 
1.5 
17 
30 
30 


35 
35 
35 
35 
30 
30 
35 
40 


50 
50 
50 
50 
45 
45 
50 
55 


65 
60 
60 
60 
55 
50 
60 
70 


80 
85 
85 
85 
85 
75 
85 
1 00 


'46' 
30 
40 
30 

'56" 


60 
60 
65 
60 
50 
60 
65 


40 
45' 


80 
'96' 


50 
50 
45 
50 
40 
45 
50 
55 


80 
75 

'so' 

76 
65 
80 
85 


1 30 
1 15 
1 15 












Posey.. 


65 


1 30 


1 50 


70 
70 
70 
75 

" "75 
1 00 


20 
10 










20 


Randolph . .. 

Ripley 

Rush 






1 25 
1 00 
1 35 
1 35 


65 
55 
65 

60 


1 28 
1 30 


1 50 

60 

1 50 

1 60 


20 






17 






20 


Scott 


20 


Shelby 








Spencer 


20 
25 
30 

20 
20 
30 
17 
15 
20 


35 
40 
35 

35 
35 
35 
30 
35 
35 


50 
55 
45 

45 
50 
50 
42 
35 
50 


60 
75 
55 

60 
60 
60 
50 
43 
60 


85 

1 00 

75 

"75 
85 
85 
73 
60 
85 


45 

■35' 
45 


60 
65 

60 
60 


'46' 
65 


'76' 
90 

.... 
'75' 


45 
55 
45 

'45 
50 
50 
42 


75 
90 
70 

'75' 
80 
75 
65 
54 


1 25 
1 35 
1 10 

i'oo" 

1 20 

'i'66' 

84 
1 20 


76 

75 


1 20 
1 35 






20 
















St. Joseph... 


75 
60 
65 
60 
55 
46 
60 




i'36 
1 25 
1 20 
1 30 
1 00 
1 35 


1 60 








20 


Switzerland. 
Tippecanoe.. 
Tipton 


1 55 


1 00 
70 
84 
60 
60 


"26" 
17 




42 






15 


Vanderburg. 








20 
















Vigo... 

Wabash 

Warren 

Washington. 

Wayne 

Wells 


25 
20 
30 
25 
30 
20 


40 
35 
35 
40 
35 
35 


50 
50 
45 
60 
50 
50 


65 
60 
55 
75 
60 
60 


90 
85 
85 
90 
85 
85 


'45" 


65 
60 
60 
60 
60 






50 
50 
50 
50 
50 


85 
75 
65 
85 
75 


'i'36' 
1 10 
1 35 


75 
65 
65 
75 
65 
70 
65 
65 


1 40 
1 40 
1 35 
1 40 
1 35 
1 35 
1 25 
1 30 




75 
75 
65 




45 
65' 
45' 

'46' 


75 

'ss' 

'75' 

'76 


"26" 
'26' ' 


i'50 


70 
75 

""66 




50 
50 
50 


75 
75 
75 


i'is' 


20 


White 

Whitley 


35 
30 


35 
35 


50 
45 


60 
60 


85 
75 


'45" 


20 
20 

















It is difficult at this early date to give exactly the 
saving made to the state by this law. The preceding 
table, compiled from figures submitted by the county 



241 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

superintendents to the committee on education of the 
last legislature, purports to give the usual prices ob- 
tained for the text-books in the various counties of the 
state. 

The table has permanent value, as showing the vari- 
ation in prices throughout a state, under a system of free 
competition modified bj county contracts in places. It 
is due the publishers to say that it has been clearly 
shown, since the publication of this table, that some few 
of the county superintendents sent in " contract," in- 
stead of retail prices. The superintendent of Union 
county, for example, writes that he sent in " contract " 
prices, while prominent dealers of the same county give 
their regular retail prices about the same as those in 
Vanderburg county. Similar facts appear regarding 
Payette County. In Bartholomew county there is 
clearly a mistake as to the readers in general use, as the 
county had adopted Harvey's instead of McGuffey's. 
There are probably other mistakes of more or less conse- 
quence. It still holds true that this table, based on re- 
turns from the county superintendents, had a powerful 
— very likely a decisive — influence in securing the pas- 
sage of the bill. It is true, too, that the table does show 
really wide variations in prices in the different coun- 
ties; and the advocates of the law, who were de- 
nouncing the " school-book trust," of course charged this 
lack of uniformity upon the publishers. Doubtless the 
retail dealers were more to blame ; for in the case of the 
State ex rel. Philip Snoke vs. Elijah A. Blue, Trustee, 
it was proved, by the affidavit of a member of the firm 
which furnished the great majority of the books in use, 



SCHOOL-BOOK LEGISLATION. 245 

that their prices, as issued by themselves and by whole- 
sale dealers in general, were uniform ; also, that in their 
sales throughout the state to dealers, they had consist- 
ently followed their regular rules regarding discounts, 
and had in no case given more than 16 2-3 per cent. 
Catalogues of large jobbing houses confirm the testi- 
mony. 

If, now, we grant that the books furnished under the 
new text-book law are equal in paper, binding and print 
to those named in the law — and this has been virtually 
affirmed by the state board of education — we can see 
that a great saving has been made in the cost of books. 
The city superintendent of one of the largest cities in 
the state estimates this saving at from thirty-three to 
forty per cent. Other good authorities estimate it at 
even more than that. The state superintendent, think- 
ing that the cost of introduction, which may fairly be 
added to the prices of the books, is very large, has se- 
cured reports from as many counties as possible in the 
state, with the purpose of showing the cost of introduc- 
tion of these books during the first year. These reports, 
from over forty counties, show that, if the estimates are 
fair, the cost of handling the books for this year amounts 
to some $22,000 ; others, reckoning by districts, put the 
expense at nearly $40,000. Some of the school officials 
are of the opinion that this item is enough to more than 
balance the saving in the price of the books. The law, 
then, in their judgment, results merely in a shifting of 
the burden from the parents to the tax-payers. 

These figures, however, cannot be considered as fairly 
representative. In the first place, the cost of introduc- 



246 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

ing tlie books in the first year will greatly exceed — in 
fact, will probably more than double — that of supplying 
the regular demand for the books thereafter. Again, 
in many of the counties where the expense seems great- 
est in proportion to the amount of books sold (as, for 
instance, in Warren county, where, for selling $189.20 
worth of books, there was paid to the trustees and county 
superintendent the sum of $320), little attempt has been 
made to carry the law into execution; on the contrary, 
decisive efforts have been made to throw discredit upon 
it. In contrast with this report can be placed the report 
of the city of Fort Wayne, where, according to the state- 
ment of the city superintendent, more than $2,000 worth 
of books have been introduced, at an expense of less 
than $12 ; and where the total expense, including new 
books furnished to the teachers at the expense of the 
board and those furnished to indigent pupils, was $132. 
29. In this case, the cost of introduction is the amount 
paid for drayage and the mere handling of the books. 
The work done by the city superintendent and the jani- 
tors and by the clerk in selling the books is not reckoned. 
The labor of these officers has been increased, but their 
salary has remained the same. So, too, it is doubtful 
whether the amount returned by some of the county 
superintendents and school trustees as to the expense of 
handling the books is fairly estimated. The work of 
selling the books must in many instances be so combined 
with other work that it is difficult, if not impossible, to 
separate it. Where, owing to this law, the county super- 
intendent has been furnished with an assistant, it is easy 
to determine the extra expense ; but in many cases it is 



SCHOOL-BOOK LEGISLATION. 247 

difficult, if not impossible. Another report of the state 
superintendent, given in a private letter, shows that the 
cost of managing the educational affairs of the counties, 
so far as the trustees are concerned, exceeds in 1890 
that of 1889 by $13,061.85. 

Even granting that the returns made to the state 
superintendent in the first list are just and fair, we still 
are able to see that there has been a real saving of con- 
siderable extent in the price of books furnished to pu- 
pils, provided, of course, that the books are of equal 
quality with those replaced. The book company has 
furnished during the year some $300,000 worth, and if 
only twenty per cent has been saved in price, this is 
enough to counterbalance the cost of introduction twice 
told. This last item of course varies greatly ; but when 
the effort has been fairly made, the introduction appears 
to cost from five to ten per cent of the selling price. 
"When the system is fairly in operation, this item should 
not be more than ten per cent, and should in most cases 
be less. It must not be forgotten that the contractor 
pays the freight to the counties. It is probable that the 
law would be improved, if an amendment were made 
permitting the contractor to deal directly with local 
dealers, rather than with the coimty superintendents 
and school trustees. Many of the dealers would be will- 
ing to do the work at a low percentage of the sales ; some 
would do it for nothing. This would be both cheaper 
and more convenient. 

The third plan of providing the schools of the state 
with cheaper text-books, and the plan most favored by 
the best educators, is the free text-book system which 



248 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

has been adopted, wholly or in part, in Massachusetts, 
Michigan, Vermont, JSTew Hampshire and Wisconsin, in 
the cities of California, New Jersey and New York, and 
in other places. Under this system, the school boards 
or the county boards, as the case may be, purchase the 
books that they deem most desirable from the publishers, 
at wholesale, in large quantities, and then either rent 
them or, more commonly, loan them to the children. In 
Massachusetts, where this system has been compulsory 
for several years, the saving has been very great.* 

School-book men in general say that under this sys- 
tem the average life of a text-book is from three to five 
years, so that besides the cheaper prices obtained by pur- 
chasing books from the publishers in large quantities, 
the same book may be used by at least three, and fre- 
quently more, different pupils. In the seventh and 
eighth grades of the grammar school in Frankfort, 
Indiana,! standard text-books in literature have been 
furnished by the school board to the pupils, instead of 
readers. The same books have been used by two sections 
of the same class and by both classes at the same time, 
making four students that were using the same book at 
once. In spite of this use, the books that were bought 
twelve years ago are still in use in that school, and are 

*In Boston, the average cost per pupil for six years was $3.43 
in the high schools ; $1.14 in the grammar schools; 23 cents in 
the primary grades. This covers a larger series of books than are 
contained in the lists given above ; but I have not the data for 
exact comparison. 

\ Given on authority of Professor R. G. Boone, of the State 
University (now Editor of Education), formerly the superin- 
tendent at Frankfort, and the one that introduced the plan. 



SCHOOL-BOOK LEGISLATION. 249 

&till in good condition. Some of the text-books, for ex- 
ample " Kellogg's edition of Shakespeare," cost origin- 
ally twenty-five cents each. This made the cost, for each 
pupil, only about six cents for one year, and half a cent 
for each of the tAvelve years. Under a, system of indi- 
vidual purchase, the outlay for books to do the same serv- 
ice would be per pupil twenty-five cents yearly, or for 
the twelve years, three dollars. This example shows 
most strikingly how much money may be saved by this 
free text-book system, even if the prices paid the pub- 
lishers be not so low as may be obtained under the con- 
tract system. Similar results are shown in the sup- 
ply of pens, stationery, ink, etc. Other reasons given 
for the adoption of the free text-book system, instead of 
the state-manufacturing or state-contract system, are 
perhaps well summed up in the following: 

1. Much time is saved. It has been estimated in 
Massachusetts that some five days' time is lost each year 
by delay of parents in purchasing books. 

2. It secures a better classification and greater uni- 
formity than purchase by pupils, unless the purchase be 
under some prescribed uniformity law. In the Report 
of the State Superintendent of Missouri for 1890, we 
find the following: 

One man [a member of a school board] a few weeks ago 
was complaining of the multiplicity of text-books in use in 
his school ; he said : " There are three kinds of arithmetic of 
the same grade, two geographies and four grammars in use, 

* In an admirable little pamphlet on Systems of Text-book 
Supply, by S. S. Parr, the average per capita cost per year under 
any of the systems is placed at about 60 cents. 



250 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

and, don't you know, that are [sic'] too many for one teacher 
to teach every day." [Page 18.] 

Similar instances as regards both the number of books 
and the learning of the director can be found in many 
states. 

3. It effects a saving in expense. This has been abun- 
dantly illustrated. 

4. It cultivates respect for public property. Con- 
trary to the general impression, experience proves be- 
yond question that children, acting under the influence 
of the teacher and of the stimulus that comes from the 
penalty of buying a new book if the one owned by the 
district is carelessly lost or spoiled, take better care of 
books belonging to the school than of their own. 

5. It secures a better variety and choice of books. 
Especially is this shown along the line of supplementary 
reading, etc. 

6. It effectually prevents waste in the case of a change 
of residence on the part of families. 

Y. It increases the attendance. In East Saginaw, 
Michigan, the year the free text-book system was in- 
augurated saw an increased enrollment of ten per cent 
with less than one per cent increase in the school census. 
In Fall River, Massachusetts, in seven years the enroll- 
ment increased but two per cent, while the average at- 
tendance increased twenty-seven per cent. The superin- 
tendent says : " The result is due almost entirely to free 
text-books." Indeed, this is the universal testimony, and 
no one can fail to recognize how powerful an argument 
it is in favor of the system. 



SCHOOL-BOOK LEGISLATION. 251 

8. 'Eo discrimination is made between rich and poor. 

As regards objections to the plan, it may be said that 
children are not forbidden to purchase their own books 
if they wish, but are enabled to secure them at cost 
price ; that no ill effect in the way of transmission of con- 
tagious diseases has been seen, and that this effect would 
more likely come from our public library systems, 
where no such effect appears; that so long as the books 
are furnished to all, no feeling of dependence is engen- 
dered ; that not so much time of school officers is taken as 
under any system of state supply to pupils at cost ; and 
that in any case, when the books are furnished to the 
school as a whole, this is not a burdensome task.* As 
regards the assertion that the pupil's text-books fre- 
quently furnish the nucleus of a private library, it may 
be questioned whether they are especially adapted for 
this purpose. The money saved by free text-books, 
however, if invested in supplementary works, might well 
serve to start such a library. 

The weight of opinion among school men — state 
superintendents, city superintendents and others — is 
very decidedly in favor of free text-books, with the 
choice of books left to local authorities; though in not 
a few cases county uniformity, and in some instances, 
especially in the South and West, state uniformity is 
thought desirable. In our new states, doubtless, the 
local authorities are often not competent to select suit- 
able books, and it is doubtless wise for the state authori- 

* This summary is mostly taken from the Report of the State 
Superintendent of Indiana for 1888, pp. 429 et seq., and Iowa Re- 
port 1883-85, pp. 69 et seq. 



252 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

ties at least to recommend a list from whicli they may 
choose. The state superintendent of Texas in his 
report for 1888, page 23, says: "The free text-book 
system would not be generally practicable in Texas 
outside of the larger towns and cities, on account of the 
want of suitable provisions for the care and preservation 
of the books." He nevertheless thinks that system the 
best one where there are good buildings. Along the 
same line of thought, he recommends state uniformity 
of books for the ungraded schools, but not for the cities ; 
and he has through his personal influence brought about 
county uniformity in many or most of the counties of 
the state. 

It will be a matter of surprise to many that, in spite 
of quite a general feeling against it among school men, 
no less than eleven states at present [1891. See note 
at end of article for conditions, 1905.] have state uni- 
formity of text-books ; while in some others the state su- 
perintendent furnishes more than one list of text-books 
from wliich the counties or districts must or may choose. 
Delaware, which formerly had the system of state pur- 
chase, somewhat similar to the system in Minnesota and 
Indiana, has abandoned it, though there is still state 
uniformity of text-books. Maryland, with former uni- 
formity throughout the state, has now county uniform- 
ity only. 

In three states, Massachusetts, Maine and New 
Hampshire, text-books are free throughout the state. 
In at least seven other states either the town, district 
or county may decide hj vote to make books free. In 
other states still, this power is probably in the town. 



SCHOOL-BOOK LEGISLATION. 253 

Wherever the system is introduced it grows rapidly in 
favor. In Michigan, a law providing for submission of 
the question to the several school districts having passed 
the legislature in 1889, at the following spring election 
not fewer than 520 districts voted in favor of free text- 
books. 

In many states it has been for some years the custom 
for the tow^n or county officials, when adopting a series 
of text-books for use in the schools, to enter into a defi- 
nite contract with the publisher to sell at a fixed price to 
pupils, as well as to dealers, though the board does not 
itself undertake the sale of the books. All the cases in 
which the state officials purchase books out of the public 
funds and then sell to pupils have been already given, 
it is thought, except Iowa, where this may be done by 
town or, after special vote, by county officials. In 
case of free text-books, of course, the public funds are 
used to purchase the books, but no regular mercantile 
business is done, though individual pupils are usually 
allowed to get books at the contract rate. 

From our study so far, we reach the following con- 
clusions : 

1. The state manufacture of text-books, as carried 
on in California, has not directly reduced the expense 
to the state. It is certain that most of the books are 
inferior to those that might be obtained at about the 
same prices by special contract, wherever the school 
officers are fairly competent men. The special-contract 
system, moreover, enables the different localities to 
suit their own needs. 

2. The contract system in Minnesota, where all the 



254 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

books are furnished by one contractor, has not directly 
lessened the cost of books to the pupils, if we take pres- 
ent rates. It probably did, with California and Indi- 
ana, have an influence in reducing prices. Some of 
the books are not satisfactory, though they are by no 
means so nearly worthless as represented. 

3. Prices in Indiana have been materially lessened 
by the contract system. As regards the quality of the 
books, they may fairly be called good, though not the 
best, both in material and in subject matter. The list 
is not yet completed. Better books might readily be 
obtained in open market at somewhat higher prices. 

4. The action of these three states in particular, 
and the agitation of the question in other states, has 
doubtless produced good results, in that it has led to 
lower prices from publishers, better control of retail 
dealers as regards their profits, and a careful study of 
the whole question. The agitation has been in good 
part due to the desire of politicians to pose as friends 
of the poor ; but the success of the movement is largely 
due to methods, often unwisely political and sometimes 
positively corrupt, employed by publishers' agents in 
pushing sales. 

5. The free text-book system seems, on the whole, 
to be the best, both as regards economy and the general 
effect on the schools. In some few localities it may be 
impracticable, as the state superintendent of Texas 
affirms that it is in many of the country districts of his 
state, though even there it would probably work better 
than he thinks. 

6. Whether these text-books shall be prescribed and 



SCHOOL-BOOK LEGISLATION. 255 

purchased by the state, county, or local board, will de- 
pend upon special circumstances. In the states in 
which the local boards and even the teachers are almost 
utterly untrained, it would seem best for the state to 
take the matter in charge, at least so far as to select 
a number of standard sets from which a choice may be 
made. In the more progressive states, the towns and 
cities can well manage the business for themselves. 
Here state uniformity is doubtless an injury. In states 
in which the county superintendents are attempting 
to grade the rural schools, the county should be charged 
with the selection of the books, so far as those schools are 
concerned. In some few of the smaller states, the 
whole state corresponds roughly to the county in the 
larger states, and similar circumstances there might well 
require state uniformity. Again, in some of the east- 
ern states, where there is practically no county organ- , 
ization, of course the towns must serve as the unit where (^ 
the state does not. 

The whole question is an exceedingly interesting one 
to the student of political science. The whole agitation 
is evidently but part of that great movement away from 
individualism and toward the increase of governmental 
functions — toward even a strongly centralized control. 
The question, too, is by no means settled. In several 
states the matter is being discussed, and before this arti- 
cle shall appear in print, many bills will doubtless be 
under consideration by our state legislatures and some 
new laws may already have been passed. We may feel 
confident that however much political parties may use 
the question to serve party ends, or however much rival 



256 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

publishing houses, in their own interests, may scheme 
to promote or smother special bills, the public schools 
are, after all, dear to the people ; and whatever plan 
shall have shown itself by experience to be best will 
eventually prevail, though it may be only after many 
costly experiments. In this matter, as in so many 
others, we need more light on present conditions, more 
comparative study, and we should not legislate too 
hastilj, 

NOTE. 

This article on school-book legislation shows the con- 
dition of legislation on that subject throughout the 
United States at the time the article was written, and 
gives also in some detail an account of the influences 
w^hich brought about the legislation in the State of 
Indiana. It has been thought that it would be interest- 
ing to supplement the article with a brief note which 
would show the conditions since that date. It is evident 
that the movement which was just well under way at 
the time of the passage of the Indiana law was one 
which met with popular aj^proval. The subjoined data 
show that from the year 1894 to date forty-one of our 
states have taken some action regarding either uniform- 
ity of text-books or the supplying of text-books to the 
pupils, either free or at low rates. How far the move- 
ment has been primarily in the interests of the schools, 
how far it has been an attempt to win popular favor by 
an attack upon the so-called " school-book trust," how 
often individual manufacturers were looking for an ex- 
clusive contract, and how far other motives of a private 
nature may have entered into the actions of our legis- 
lators, of course cannot be kno^vn without a very de- 
tailed study. Enough, however, is shown in this note 



NOTE. 257 

to make it clear that our people generally have made 
arrangements for providing onr pnpils with text-books 
which they deem snitable, at such rates — if, indeed, 
they are not furnished free — that no hindrance shall be 
put in the way of a thorough elementary education. 

In the following digest the method of citation followed 
is that used by the State Library of I^ew York in its 
index of legislation. It contains chapter number or 
page of act or resolution and day and month of approval 
or passage. In most of the states the session laws are 
numbered consecutively. "Where this is the case the 
abbreviation for chapter (ch.) is omitted, e. g., 94, 5 Je., 
03. In the other states the abbreviation for page (p) is 
given. 

I. Uniformity of Textbooks. 

A. State to adopt and contract for. 

Wash. 150, 21 Mr. '95— not to be changed within 
5 yrs. 

W. Va. 37, 22 F. '95. 

Okl. 34, art. 9, 12 Mr. '97.— Supt. of public in- 
struction to contract for 5 yrs. 

Mon. p. 61, 1 Mr. '97. 

Tex. 164, 10 Je. '97. Extra sess. 12, 15 My. '03. 

Kan. 179, 13 Mr. '97. (Additional textbooks to 
be adopted by state commission. Kan. 176, 2 Mr. 
'99.) 

Mich. 198, 29 My. '97. (Eepealed Mich. 27, 30 
Mr. '99.) 

Id. p. 85, 6 F. '99 — textbook commission to fur- 
nish. Also Id. p. 401, 9 Mr. '99— for 6 yrs. 

Or. p. 87, 17 F. '99— for 6 yrs. 

Tenn. 205, 13 Ap. '99— not to be changed 
oftener than 5 yrs. (Merchants and dealers may 
buy and sell schoolbooks contracted for by state. 
17 



258 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

Tenn. 71, 22 Ap. '01. Amending '99, ch. 205, 
sec. 8.) 

N. C. 1, 8 F. '01— for not less than 5 yrs. 

Nev. 39, 8 Mr. '01 — change not to be made 
oftener than once in 3 years, or except by act of 
legislature. (Board of education to recommend 
to legislature [formerly prescribe and cause to be 
adopted] series of textbooks in common school sub- 
jects; no district entitled to public school money 
unless using books adopted by legislature. Nev. 
38, 8 Mr. '01. Amending '99, ch. 78.) 

Va. '02. Amendment to Constitution. — State 
board to select textbooks and appliances. (Text- 
books not to be changed oftener than once in 4 
yrs. except histories of the United States. Va. 
694, 3 Mr. '98.) 

Ga. P. 53, 13 Ag. '03. — Textbook commission to 
adopt and make 5 yr. contract for. 

Mon. 116, 122, 7 Mr. '03 — no change to be made 
■within 4 yrs. ; textbooks to bear union label ; dis- 
tricts to vote on question, 

Ala. p. 167, 4 Mr. '03.— 5 yr. contracts. 

Ky. 3, 8 F. '04.— " " " 

Miss. 86, 19 Mr. '04.— " " « 

B. County Uniformity. 
(1) Obligatory. 

K C. 164, 6 Mr. '95. 

Md. 135, 4 Ap. '96. 

W. Va. 62, 22 F. '97. — County schoolbook boards 
appointed by county courts to decide upon and con- 
tract for. 

S. D. 59, 9 Mr. '97 — to adopt every 5 yrs. and 
contract with publishers. 

Fla. 19, 5 Je. '99. — County board of public in- 
struction to adopt. 

S. D. 113, 5 Mr. '01.— County boards to adopt. 



NOTE. 259 

(2) Optional. 

Ark. 89, 31 Mr. '99.— On vote of electors; 
county boo'k boards to select texts; special districts 
may adopt different books ; books in use in counties 
not adopting shall not be changed for 1 yr. 

la. Ill, 29 Mr. '00. — Questions of county uni- 
formity of textbooks to be submitted to electors on 
petition of one-third, formerly one-half, of rural 
school directors of county. Amending Code 97, 
sec. 2832. (Uniform textbooks of county to be 
in charge of county supt. unless otherwise ordered 
by board of education. Amending Code '97, sec. 
2832. la. 112, 14 Mr. '00.) 

II. Establishing State Textbook Board. 

W. Va. 37, 22 V. '95. 

Id. p. 401, 9 Mr. '99. 

Kan. 31, 6 Jan. '99. Amending '97, ch. 197.— 
State textbook commission made permanent; con- 
tracts may be renewed. 

Col. 5, 12 Je. '01. — Board of education to ap- 
point textbook commission of 5 persons for 5 yrs. 
to select textbooks for districts of first class; com- 
pensation $3.00 a day. 

N. C. 1, 8 F. '01.— State Board of education 
made state textbook commission. 

Cal. 173, 18 Mr. '03. Amending P. C. sec. 1874. 
— Textbook committee to adopt, compile, manufac- 
ture, and distribute books for primary and gram- 
mar grades on approval of board of education ; text- 
books to be used for period of 4 to 8 yrs. 

Ga. p. 53, 13 Ag. '03. — Board of education con- 
stituted schoolbook commission. 

Mon. 116, 122, 7 Mr. '03.— State textbook com- 
mission to consist of 7 members appointed by the 
governor for 4 yrs. (replacing board of textbook 
commissioners created by '97, p. 61.) 

Tenn. 209, 20 Mr. '03. Amending '99, ch. 205.— 



260 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

Term of textbook commission fixed at 5 yrs. ; per 
diem allowance limited to 60 (formerly 30) days. 

Tex. extra sess. 12, 15 My. '03 — replacing board 
created by '97, ch. 164. 

Ala. p. 167, 4 Mr. '03. 

Ky. 3, 8 F. '04 — "schoolbook commission." 

Miss. 86, 19 Mr. '04. 

III. Providing por Free Textbooks. 

A. Throughout the State. 

Del. 67, 12 My. '98. (Meeting of state board of 
education for the purpose of changing textbooks 
every ten yrs. Del. 187, 8 My. '95.) 

Id. p. 401, 9 Mr. '99.— But any school district 
may decide not to have free textbooks, and may 
sell to pupils books adopted by the state commis- 
sioners. (Textbooks in houses where there has 
been contagious disease to be disinfected. Id. p. 
451, 13 Mr. '99.) 

N". J. 36, 26 Mr. '02. 

U. 60, 12 Mr. '03— provided that school boards 
shall purchase all such books now remaining in 
the hands of merchants and pupils of their re- 
spective districts. Amending K. S. '98, sec, 1818. 

B. Throughout the Counties. 

Md. 135, 4 Ap. '96. — County school commis- 
sioners to adopt, purchase, and furnish free ; money 
therefor appropriated by the state. (Apportion- 
ing appropriation for textbooks. Md. 330, 8 Ap. 
'02.) 

C. Local. 

S. D. 59, 9 Mr. '97.— On petition of majority of 
electors. 



NOTE. 261 

N. Y. 195, 7 Ap. '97.— On majority vote of any 
union district. 

Wash. 118, 19 Mr. '97.— Shall vote on question. 

Id. p. 28, 6 Mr. '97.— Books may be loaned free 
or sold at cost. 

N. D. 82, 8 Mr. '99.— Board to provide when 
two-thirds of voters petition, or when board see fit. 
Amending K. C. '95, sec. 863-4. 

Wy. 29, 16 F. '99.— School directors to provide 
free textbooks and school supplies. 

Id. p. 217, 16 Mr. '01.— Electors, rather than 
trustees, to determine whether books are to be free. 
Amending '99, p. 306. 

Minn. 314, 21 Ap. '03.— In cities under 10,000 
board of education may provide free textbooks; on 
petition of 25 voters board to provide such books 
or request council to submit question to electors. 

W. Va. 28, 28 F. '03.— Boards of education may 
provide free textbooks from building funds; pur- 
chase, distribution, and use. 

(1) On popular vote. 

N. D. 109, 18 Mr. '95. 
la. 37, 7 Mr. '96. 

Kan. 179, 13 Mr. '97. (Contracts may be re- 
newed. Kan. 31, 6 Jan. '99.) 
Mon. p. 61, 1 Mr. '97. 
Mich. 198, 29 My. '97. 

(2) State school funds to be withheld from towns 
neglecting to provide textbooks. 

Me. 64, 11 Mr. '99. (Parents may provide books 
at their own expense for exclusive use. Me. 47, 25 
F. '95.) 

(3) Textbooks may be loaned to pupils in private 
pay schools during vacations, on certain conditions. 

Pa. 106, 7 Je. '97. 



262 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

D. Furnished to the Indigent. 

Ct. 27, 15 Mr. '97.— School visitors may buy at 
town expense. 

S. C. 539, 30 F. '02.— District school trustees 
may furnish. 

N. M. 39, 12 Mr. '03. Amending C. L. '97, sec. 
1555. 

IV. Providing Depositories for Textbooks. 

W. Va. 62, 22 F. '97. 

Ga. p. 53, 13 Ag. '03. — Contractor to maintain. 
Ala. p. 167, 4 Mr. '03. — State depositories and 
county agencies. 
Ky. 3, 8 F. '04. 

V. Purchase and Sale of Books. 

A. Purchase. 

(1) Agents shall not be interested in textbooks or 
supplies. Mass. 429, 25 My. '96. (Pupils may re- 
tain and purchase; school committee to make rules 
for use of free textbooks in accordance with '84, ch. 
103. Mass. 472, 6 Je. '01. Amending '84, ch. 103.) 

(2) Unlawful for teachers, supts. or trustees to 
act as agents for textbooks. Tex. 7, 21 F. '00. 

(3) State to contract with publishers. 

Id. p. 401, 9 Mr. '99— through state board of 
commissioners. 

Or. p. 87, 17 F. '99— publishers to contract to 
sell at fixed prices. 

Mo. p. 22, 13 Mr. '97 — providing for second 5 
yr. contract by state commissioner. 

Tenn. 205, 13 Ap. 99— or with authors. 



NOTE. 263 

K D. 82, 8 Mr. '99.— No contract for free text- 
books shall be for less than 3 or more than 5 yrs. ; 
publishers to furnish supt. of public instruction 
lists of books, prices, and sample copies. Amend- 
ing R. S. '95, sec. 863--4. 

U. 10, 14 F. '03. — On expiration of contract 
state supt. to call convention consisting of state 
supt., county supts., and principal of Normal 
School to provide for new contract. Amending 
R. S. '98, sec. 1855, 1858. 

(4) Publishers to maintain agencies throughout 
the state; competitive bids. 

Mon. p. 61, 1 Mr. '97. 

Tex. 164, 10 Je. '97. 

Kan. 179, 13 Mr. '97 — maximum prices fixed in 
law. 

Mich. 198, 29 My. '97— but state may purchase 
manuscript and print textbooks. 

Mon. 116, 122, 7 Mr. '03. 

B. Sale. 

(1) At cost to pupils. 

K H. 50, 19 Mr. '95. 

S. C. 257, 17 F. '97— at cost or exchange price. 
(At cost; unlawful for schools and colleges receiv- 
ing aid from free school fund to use any text- 
books disapproved by state board of education. 
S. C. 473, 21 F. '98. County supt. to keep office 
open at certain times for purchase of books. S. C. 
204, 17 F. '00.) 

Id. p. 28, 6 Mr. '97— clerk of trustees shall be 
custodian. 

(2) At 25% advance on contract price. 
W. Va. 62, 22 F. '97. 



264 CITIZENSHIP AND THE SCHOOLS. 

(3) At 10% advance. 
S. D. 59, 9 Mr. '97. 

(4) County, city, and town boards of education 
may purchase school books, and rent or sell them to 
pupils, or may contract with merchants to sell them 
at stipulated prices. Ga. p. 90, 16 D. '97. 

VI. Eegaeding Special Textbooks. 

(1) State board of schoolbook commissioners may 
order revision of geographies and histories ofteiler 
than every 5 yrs. Ind. 216, 11 Mr. '01. Amending 
'93, ch. '93. 

(2) School directors may buy for reference in 
schools Constant's History of Wyoming and Carroll's 
Sabbath as an American War Day. Wy. 38, 14 F. 
'01. Amending E. S. '99, sec. 597. 

(3) State board of schoolbook commissioners may 
adopt a reading primer. Ind. 51, 29 F. '03. 



Pedagogues and Parents 

By ELLA CALISTA WILSON 
Gilt top, 290 pp. $1.25 net (by mail $1.37) 

This book is a discussion of schools and education, actual 
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Publishers (".'05) New York 



Two Masterpieces on Education 



JAMES'S TALKS ON PSYCHOLOGY 

TALKS TO TEACHERS ON PSYCHOLOGY AND TO 
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itself and passes into the reader, and forms him into the writer's mood." 

The Critic : " When pedagogical libraries can show a preponderance of such 

books, they may well begin to rival the fiction departments in popularity." 

'walker's DISCUSSIONS IN] 
EDUCATION 

By the late Francis A. Walker, President of the Massachu- 
setts Institute of Technology. Edited by James Phinnky 
MuNROE. 342 pp., 8vo. $3.00, net. 
The author had hoped himself to collect these papers in a volume. 

The Dial: " A fitting memorial to its author. . . . The breadth of his 
experience, as well as the natural range of his mind, are here reflected. The 
subjects dealt with are all live and practical. . . . He never deals with them 
in a narrow or so-called 'practical ' way." 

Literature : " The distinguishing traits of these papers are open-minded- 
ness, breadth, and sanity. . . . No capable student of education will overlook 
General Walker's book ; no serious collection of books on education will be 
without it. The distinguished author's honesty, sagacity, and courage shine 
on every page." 

Tke Boston Transcript: " Two of his conspicuous merits characterize these 
papers, the peculiar power he possessed of enlisting and retaining the attention 
lor what are commonly supposed to be dry and difficult subjects, and the ca- 
pacity he had for controversy, sharp and incisive, but so candid and geoeroiM 
that it left no festering wound." 

HFIsIR Y HOI T /^ TO 29 west 23d St., New Yo'rk 
nciNlXl nWLl QL y^KJ. 378 Wabash Ave., Chicago 



TWO BOOKS ON VITAL QUESTIONS 
FOR THOUGHTFUL AMERICANS 

THE NEGRO AND THE NATION 

By GEORGE S. MERRIAM 

Probably ihe first complete history of the negro in his 
relation to our politics. 2d printing 436 pp. $1.75 net. 
By mail $1.92. 

The Rev. Edward Everett Hale in "Lend a Hand": "Sensi- 
ble people who wish to know, who wish to form good sound opinions, 
and especially those who wish to take their honest part in the great 
duties of the hour, will read the book, will study it, and will find noth- 
ing else better worth reading and study." 

"Admirable, exactly the sort of book needed. . .. Enlightened and 
persuasive discussion of the negro problem in its present phases and 
aspects. Not a dry history. Human, dramatic, interesting, absorb- 
ing, there is philosophy ot national and political life back of it— a 
philosophy which not only furnished interpretation of past events, 
but offers guidance for the future. . . . Impartial and informing. . . , 
There is much that tempts quotation. . . . Mr. Merriam has given 
us an excellent, high-minded, illuminating book on the problem of 
the American negro." — Chicago Record-Herald. 

"A deeply interesting story. . . . An exceedingly readable vol- 
ume, especially valuable in its analyses of conditions, causes, situa- 
tions and results; and against his main conclusions no sane person 
can contend." — Boston Transcript, 

STUDIES IN 
AMERICAN TRADE-UNIONISM 

J. H. HOLLANDER and G. E. BARNETT (Editors) 

Twelve papers by graduate students and officers of 
Johns Hopkins University, the results of original investiga- 
tions of representative Trade Unions. There are also 
chapters on Employers' Associations, the Knights of 
Labor, and the American Federation of Labor. (380 pp., 
8vo, ^2.75 net. By mail, $2.98.) 

"A study of trade-unions in the concrete. Impartial and thor- 
ough . . . expertly written." — New York Times Review. 

"Though confined to particular features of particular trade 
unions, the data dealt with are comprehensive and typical ; so that 
the result is a substantial contribution to our knowledge of trade- 
union structure and functions. . . . Excellent studies." 

— New York Evening Post. 

" It is doubtful if anything approaching it in breadth and co-ordi- 
nation has yet found its v/ay into print. . . . Avery useful book." 

— San Francisco Chronicle. 

Henry Holt and Company 

29 W. 23D Street (v, '06) New York 



MAY 25 1906 



